


No, Just Friends: Scorpius Malfoy & Albus Severus Potter

by iramckenzie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Romance, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-08-12 19:54:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 40,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7947010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iramckenzie/pseuds/iramckenzie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Voldemort is dead. The Augurey is imprisoned. All is well in the Wizarding World. Once again Scorpius and Albus are friends, the best of friends. But with fifth year approaching and the world seeing them in a new light they begin to ask themselves the question; just how deep can friendship run before it becomes something else? <br/>**SPOILERS: This FanFic contains spoilers and plot elements from the Cursed Child**</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1: Platform 9 3/4

**Author's Note:**

> **SPOILER WARNING!: This story contains spoilers from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child**
> 
> Hey guys. So here it is, my first FanFic, it's based around the relationship between Albus Severus and Scorpius, and it continues on from where the Cursed Child left off. I haven't made much of a plan for this fic, all I know is that it's going to explore the developing relationship between these two cute-as-a-button friends. I'm really excited to see where the story takes me, and I hope you enjoy it too!
> 
> Ira, <3

1 September, 2021

Smoke was billowing out from under the Hogwart's Express as hundreds of students and parents gathered along the platform to wish each other farewell. Hugs were shared and promises to send frequent owls were made. Younger brothers and sisters stared in awe as their older siblings boarded the scarlet train, knowing that one day they, too, would get the chance to go to the magical school they had heard so much about.

At the far end of the platform the Potters and Granger-Weasleys were gathered, surrounded as always by a gang of enthusiastic onlookers.

"Now you know that your fifth year is very important," Hermione was telling her daughter Rose, "your OWLs are going to be much more difficult than your end of year exams were and you will need to organise your time if you want to get the best grades."

"Yes, mom, I know," Rose replied, rolling her eyes slightly, "I got all Outstanding grades in my OWL mocks, in case you'd forgotten-"

"And she captained the Gryffindor quidditch team," her dad Ron added proudly, "a real Granger-Weasley is our daughter."

"Yes, I am aware of that," Hermione smiled at her husband, "I just want her to be the best person she can be."

"I will mom, stop worrying!" Rose gave her mother a reassuring hug, which Ron soon joined in with.

Next to them Albus stifled a yawn. He'd already heard his own mother have the exact same conversation with James and Lily, and he knew it would be his turn next. He'd never really been one for tender family moments. His relationship with his father had been much better since the incident with the time turners, but even now he had little interest in hanging around on the platform doling out hugs and promising to be the best student he could possibly be.

Actually, there was only one place he wanted to be, and that was aboard the train, in the same compartment as the last five years, with the only person in the world who really understood him. With the only person in the world with whom he felt truly at ease.

"Ok, Al." Harry said, interrupting his thoughts, "now I know that last year was a little wild, and I know we've spoken about this already but-"

"Yeah dad, Ok," Albus interrupted,"you don't need to give me the lecture again. I won't jump off the roof of the train and I won't try and go back in time or save anybody, and all that - I get it."

"I wasn't going to say that," Harry observed his son fondly for a moment, he no longer needed to look down to make eye contact with him, they were already the same height. "I just wanted to remind you that your mother and I, well, we love you very much, and if you find yourself in the same dark place as you did last year then I want you to know that you can talk to us."

Albus cringed. Jesus. Why did his dad have to do this? Why did he need to be so cheesy in front of everyone?

"OK... thanks," he mumbled, hoping James and Rose hadn't heard his dad's little speech, "so, I'll be going now then..." He shuffled awkwardly on the spot.

"Ok, have a good time at Hogwarts, and we'll see you at Christmas," Harry embraced his son, "don't forget to say goodbye to your mum," he added.

"Bye mum," Albus muttered, and he gave her a hug before turning on his heel and heading towards his usual carriage. His enchanted trunk followed him obediently onto the train and towards the third compartment. He slid the door open and smiled when he saw the person he had already known would be there waiting for him,

"Albus!" Scorpius's face broke into a toothy smile as he jumped up from his seat to embrace his best friend.

"Hey Scorpius," Albus replied,wrapping his arms around his smaller counterpart, "so I take it we are now, officially, huggers then?"

"Well, you started it, and it's nice, so why stop?"

Albus's smile widened. This is why he loved Scorpius. This is why he was his best friend. There was never any pretence with him and he never felt the need to behave the way society expected him to. He liked hugs, and so he said it. Albus doubted any other Slytherin boy, past or present, would be as willing to admit to such a thing.

"Looking forward to fifth year?" Scorpius asked as he released Albus and re-took his seat in the compartment, "here, have a pumpkin pasty."

Albus gave the pumpkin pasty a suspicious look. They were made by the trolley lady who they'd discovered last year was actually a transmorphing, spikey-handed, bomb throwing, psycho train cop.

"I bought them before I came," Scorpius added, noticing his friend's reluctance to eat the sweet.

"Perfect, then." Albus shoved the pasty in his mouth and reached for another, "so to answer your question, no, I'm not looking forward to it. Are you?"

"Of course! Things are going to be totally better this year," Albus was pleased to see Scorpius was as optimistic as ever, "we're gonna be fifth years, and that means that the only people left who are older than us are the sixth and seventh years who are either already 17 or will be turning 17 this year. As soon as they turn of age the stupid ones drop out, and the ones that stay will be too busy with NEWTs to give us a second thought!"

Albus wasn't sure that Scorpius's logic was particularly watertight, but he did have a point, kind of.

In their first four years at Hogwarts neither Albus nor Scorpius had been able to make any friends, other than each other. They had been picked on relentlessly by the Gryffindors who felt they had been robbed of their glorious, son-of-Harry-Potter, prized student, and shunned by the Slytherins who hadn't trusted Scorpius because he'd befriended the enemy. And that's without mentioning the rumour that Scorpius was actually Voldemort's son. They'd had a tough few years.

They had both pretended to deal with the bullying in their own ways. Albus turned into a recluse and took it out on his family, convincing himself and others that being the anti-Potter is exactly what he wanted. Whilst Scorpius had used his unfaltering positivity as a shield against anything anybody had to say to, or about, him. The truth is that, to a point, their coping mechanisms had worked, but they'd both grown tired of their mistreatment and there was nothing that Albus wanted more than to have a good year at Hogwarts, for once.

"We did kind of save the world," Albus mused, optimistically, "that's got to count for something,right?"

"I guess so," Scorpius agreed, "but let's not forget that it was us who nearly destroyed it in the first place."

"Nearly? We did destroy it, but then we fixed it again, and we caught the real heir of Voldemort in the process."

"Thanks to your parents' intervention," Scorpius added, then his eyes lit up, "and my dad's, actually!"

"Yeah, your dad was pretty cool, too" Albus agreed.

Ever since the night that Delphini was caught by uncle Ron, aunt Hermione, Albus's dad and Mr Malfoy, Scorpius had seen his father in a new light. For a long time he'd convinced himself that he wasn't the strong leader and heir to the Malfoy name that his father had always wanted him to be. He'd even let himself believe that Draco was only kind to him as a dying wish to his late mother, Astoria.

That all changed, though, when his dad travelled back nearly half a century in time with his childhood enemies to save his only son's life.

Scorpius had come to realise that he wasn't a disappointment in his father's eyes after all. In fact, he loved him very much. What's more, he no longer thought of his dad as an ex-death eater, but instead he thought of him as a hero – and so did a great deal of the wizarding community.

"You know what?" Albus asked, finishing his eighth pumpkin pasty, "I think you might be right. I think this year could finally be our year."

"Exactly!" Scorpius was glad to see that, for once, Albus was as enthusiastic as him.

"We'll get good grades,"

"Yup!"

"We'll be more popular,"

"Hmm, hmm."

"We'll -"

"Be invited to the history of magic reading club!" Scorpius added excitedly,

"Um... Maybe, yeah..." Albus grinned. They both laughed. "And maybe, just maybe, we'll find ourselves some nice girls!"

There was a second of silence.

"Yeah." Scorpius agreed, a little too late.

He didn't let his smile fall from his face, but inside something heavy seemed to drop from his chest and down into his stomach.

He didn't much like the thought of finding a girlfriend.

He liked the thought of Albus finding one even less.

"Maybe Rose'll even let you go on that date you've been wanting with her for the last five years," Albus winked at his best friend, but the only response he got was a dry chuckle that didn't meet his eyes.

"Yeah, maybe." Scorpius finally said, "but now I think of it we'll probably just be as unpopular as before so..."

Scorpius broke eye contact and his expression changed. Albus could always read his best friend's expression, but not now. Now Scorpius was feeling a way that Albus had never seen him feel before, and he didn't understand it.

"Look," Scorpius muttered, looking only at his hands, which were in his lap, "this summer I've been thinking a lot... thinking a lot about me, and about - about you...about us, and - "

"Anything off the trolley, dears?" The trolley witch poked her head around the compartment door. Any sign of psychopathic, student murder-iness was gone, replaced with the same old loving smile as always.

"No thanks," they both said together, slightly terrified.

"Maybe later, though, thanks," Albus added quickly. It was always good to try and stay on the good side of someone you knew to be perfectly capable of killing you, he thought.

The trolley witch plodded innocently along to the next compartment.

"So, what were you saying mate?" Albus asked, turning back to Scorpius.

"Oh, nothing," He lied. He straightened, falling back into his happy-go-lucky persona, he shot Albus one of his massive smiles "this year'll be cool. You'll see. No worries."

And he shoved another pumpkin pasty in his mouth. Hoping, for the first time in his life, that the conversation would end there.


	2. Slytherin Common Room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 2. I hope you guys enjoy reading it, and thank you so much for the kudos and lovely comments you gave the first chapter. I really love receiving feedback so feel free to leave a comment! Thanks!

Albus woke early on the first day of class, he didn't know why - between the journey from King's Cross, all the food he'd eaten during the Great Feast and the nerves about what the new school year had to offer he should have been tired enough to sleep the whole night through, yet here he was, at 5AM, totally and utterly wide awake.

Scorpius, on the other hand, was still asleep. He hadn't moved an inch in the last 43 minutes. Albus knew this because for the last 43 minutes he'd been watching him. Well, perhaps not watching, Albus didn't like that word, it made it sound creepy. He was simply taking a glance every now and then. A constant, never ending, intense and non-blinking glance.

It wasn't creepiness, Albus told himself, it was just interest. Scorpius almost always woke up first and it was rare that he got to see his friend like this. He was noticing a lot of things for the first time. Tiny things, like how his lips echoed the outline of his smile even when his mouth was closed and completely relaxed.

Like how his eyebrows and eyelashes, which were always a few shades darker than a person's hair, were a tad too dark for his almost silver locks. 

Like how he always slept on his side, facing Albus, because that's the way they fell to sleep – talking to each other.

And, most of all, how he slept with his arms wrapped around the corner of his pillow, as if he were hugging it. Because, after all, Scorpius liked hugs.

Albus stayed that way for at least another twenty minutes, just glancing at his friend, until he finally decided he was beginning to creep himself out and got out of bed. He pulled on his robes and checked his timetable for the day. It was a Thursday, and fifth year Slytherins had a free period first thing on a Thursday. Nice.

To be honest, it was a relief knowing that he'd have more time to prepare for his first class. He and Scorpius hadn't been entirely accurate in their assumptions that people would treat them better since they saved the world a year ago.

The previous night, during the sorting ceremony and the great feast, people had been kinder to them, much kinder, in fact. There were no insults and people hadn't given them dirty looks or moved away when they were around. But the whispers were still there;

-"Did you know they nearly destroyed the world?"

-"I heard they went back in time to try and save Voldemort, you know, the Malfoy boy's real father..."

-"My uncle Lucan says the Potter boy went back to try and get sorted into Gryffindor, so he wouldn't be such a disappointment..."

These things didn't bother Albus too much, though. He could deal with the whisperers - as long as the name-calling and barely hidden giggling at their expense were over, he was happy.

Albus's thoughts were interrupted by Scorpius grumbling and turning over.

"Mornin'," he muttered with a yawn. He sat up in his bed and ran a hand through his light hair, "wow, you're up early. Is it some kind of special occasion?"

"No, I just couldn't sleep anymore," Albus answered. He saw that Scorpius was already wearing his trademark smile and he couldn't help but be infected by it.

"Why are you so happy?" he asked.

"I'm always happy!" was the answer that he got, and it was accompanied by another beaming, white smile.

"Yeah, good point." Albus passed his timetable to his friend, "we have a free period first thing, wanna go for a walk around the grounds after breakfast? We can cast some spells, as long as nobody sees us."

Albus had been desperate to use magic since the end of last term. His parents had let him practise at home, but only under their supervision. They said there was no need for him to use magic until he was 17, otherwise he'd come to take it for granted. The only really useful spell they'd let him perform was the levitation charm he'd put on his trunk so that he wouldn't have to drag it around, and that had already worn off.

"Sure," Scorpius was already out of bed and putting his robes on, "I was actually going to go down to the library and catch up on some charms theory, you know, before we start the fifth year syllabus. But the grounds sound like a good option too."

"You absolute nerd," Albus chuckled, taking back his timetable. Only Scorpius could have planned to spend his first free period of the year revising things they hadn't even been taught yet.

"How dare you!" Scorpius exclaimed, putting on an offended front, "I've never been so insulted, I tell you! Not in all my days!"

They laughed and Albus dodged the sock Scorpius threw at him in his playful rage.

"Your nerdiness is cute, though" Albus replied before he could stop himself.

He felt his cheeks flush immediately red. He knew he'd put his foot in it, but Scorpius seemed to take it as a perfectly innocent joke.

"Indeed. Indeed it is," he responded in his lord-of-the-manor voice, "in fact it's one of the many amazing qualities I posses that have made me so tremendously popular."

He winked at Albus.

"Yeah..." Albus forced a chuckle and busied himself with making his bed, trying to hide his now bright red cheeks.

"It's nearly time for breakfast," Scorpius, now using his normal voice, announced. He thanked Merlin that Albus had turned away after he'd called him cute, if not he would've all but seen his heart flutter out of his chest. He tried to act as casual as possible, "shall we go up and see what our lovely classmates have in store for us this year?"

Albus's faux pas seemed to have passed by without Scorpius giving it a second thought. He had been lucky, though, he was going to have to be more careful in the future. The last thing he needed was to lose his best, and only, friend because he let slip something as stupid as "your nerdiness is cute". He made a mental note to kick himself for it later.

"Yeah, let's go and meet our devoted fans," he finally said, as normally as he could. He grabbed his wand and with a smile and a friendly pat on the shoulder they headed out of the Slytherin common room and up to the Great Hall.

When they arrived the Great Hall was abuzz with chatter and nerves. The first years were excited to experience their first classes in the art of magic whilst the fourth and sixth years were busy trying to work out their new timetables as Professor Flitwick passed between their tables handing out the optative OWL and NEWT schedules. Albus and Scorpius passed by pretty much unnoticed. It was a good sign.

When they reached their place at the Slytherin table a prefect, Allan something-or-other, stopped by to give them a message.

"All fifth years taking Muggle Studies at OWL level are to attend an introductory lecture from the new Muggle Studies professor during first period. Attendance is compulsory, tardiness will not be tolerated."

He left a parchment on the table that confirmed his instructions. It was signed by an S. Sisera.

"A new Muggle Studies teacher, how intriguing," Scorpius mused as he filled his mouth with muesli.

"I didn't even know the old one was leaving," Albus replied, "and they're taking our free period off us!"

"I'm not sure I see that as a necessarily negative thing. If they want to take the time to introduce us to themselves and their way of teaching, they must be a thorough professional." Scorpius was being overly optimistic again.

"That, or they're the second coming of that Umbridge woman you met when you went back in time."

"Don't be ridiculous," Scorpius rolled his eyes, "he or she just wants to introduce themselves to us. There's really nothing wrong with that."

"I suppose so," Albus agreed begrudgingly, but he still wasn't pleased about missing out on his free period. "Do we have to go?"

"Unless you want to get a detention on the first day, then yes." Scorpius answered matter of factly.

"I guess I don't," Albus gave in, "hurry up then, or we'll be late."

He finished eating his half buttered slice of toast and stood up. He had a bad feeling about the surprise 'lecture'. Something was telling him that nothing good could come of going to the Muggle Studies room at that moment. He had no idea what it was and no way of explaining it, all he knew was that his body was filled with an intense need to protect Scorpius - something which he knew he would do at all costs, regardless of what that meant.

Resigned to the fact that he had no choice in the matter, and that his bad feeling was probably nothing more than the musings of a teenager who'd just had his free period taken away from him, he led the way out of the Great Hall and headed towards the grand staircase. Scorpius, as always, followed at his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go guys, I hope you enjoyed it. Like I said before, feel free to leave a comment if you liked it!


	3. Chapter 3: Muggle Studies Classroom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's chapter 3. This was originally part of chapter 2 but I got a little carried away and ended up having to split it into 3! I hope you like it, please read and leave a comment.   
> Ira <3

When they reached the Muggle Studies classroom on the first floor they discovered that the new teacher was a rather plump lady with wild, curly brown hair and thick-rimmed, turtle-shell glasses. Scorpius thought she looked like a welcoming mix between your favourite aunt and a freelance journalist. According to Albus, who was accustomed to seeing muggle TV shows at home, and who was well-versed in muggle slang, she looked like a middle-aged hipster.

"Good morning boys and girls," she chimed cheerfully as she let the group of Slytherins and Gryffindors into her classroom, "as you enter I'd like you to form a line along the back wall, if you wouldn't mind."

They did as they were told and they soon found out that the reason for them being summoned there, and the reason for being lined up against the classroom wall, was so that Professor Sisera could explain to them her somewhat peculiar seating policy.

"Now, I know that you guys have been studying here for the last four years and you already all know each other well, but it's become pretty obvious to me that there's a ginormous divide between your two houses."

Albus found the new professor's way of speaking a little off-putting. There was no way professor McGonagall would ever say words like guys, pretty obvious and ginormous. Was Professor Sisera trying to be cool? Or was she hiding something more sinister behind that happily high-pitched voice?

"So," she continued, clearly impervious to the nose dive that Albus's opinion of her was taking, "what I've decided to do is make a little seating plan. Just for the first term, to see how things go. I've put Gryffindors next to Slytherins and Slytherins next to Gryffindors, and I've tried to mix the genders up the best I could." She took out her wand and flicked it towards a piece of parchment that was lying on her desk. It floated into the air and began to expand, giving the whole class a view of the seating plan she'd drawn up, "now, if you could all find your places and take a seat, we'll use the rest of the period to get to know each other a little better."

Almost immediately, a stampede of students formed, all trying to get a look at the enormous parchment. Albus realised all too soon that he and Scorpius were not only seated at different tables, but they were seated at entirely opposite ends of the classroom.

"This is so unfair," he muttered to Scorpius, "unfair and ridiculous."

"I don't know," his blonde friend replied, "it could be good! This could be our opportunity to make some new friends! And like Professor Sisera said, it's only for the first term. She'll change it if it doesn't work out."

"Yeah, let's see..." Albus wasn't convinced. Scorpius could be as positive as he liked about the new teacher and her little social experiments, but he knew that being sat next to new people could only end in tears. The last four years were all the proof he needed of that. He just hoped that this time they were his own tears, and not those of his best friend.

It took the fifth years a while to find and shuffle to their new seats. Muggle Studies was generally considered an easy OWL, one that you took because you wouldn't stand a chance in a more difficult subject like Ancient Runes. People turned up, listened and then left again – they didn't come because they found the subject enlightening and they certainly didn't come with the intention of 'making new friends'.

All the same, the students did as they were told without complaint and Albus found himself sat at the back of the class next to a Welsh, Gryffindor boy called Sean Edwards. They'd never really spoken before, and from what Albus could gather Sean was muggle born and hadn't known anything about the Potters before coming to Hogwarts. So far, he'd just smiled at Albus and taken his seat without complaint. Perhaps that was a good sign.

Scorpius, however, hadn't been so lucky. He was sat next to Polly Chapman in the front row, and all that Albus could see of him was the back of his head.

It didn't take long for the inevitable to happen.

"Mii-iiiiiis," Polly called out sweetly from her chair, arm raised in the air, "Miiiiss, if you have a moment?"

"Yes?," Professor Sisera asked, turning to face the class.

"Miss, you said you were going to sit Gryffindors next to Slytherins and vice-versa, so why am I sat next to Scorpius Riddle – oh, sorry, I mean Scorpius Malfoy."

All of Polly's friends (which were around 90% of the class) started to giggle.

"Well, Miss Chapman - " Sisera looked sternly over her glasses at the giggling class, " - we have more Slytherins than Gryffindors here today, so I chose to sit you next to Mr Malfoy here. I thought it might be nice for you to have the chance to get to know each other a little better."

"Right." Polly answered, clearly not impressed with the explanation, "the thing is, this isn't going to work out. You see Scorpius here is actually the son of Voldemort and he has been known to steal illegal time-turners to try to go back to the eighties and save his daddy's life-"

The giggles were gradually turning into all out laughter.

"- and so, as I'm sure you can understand, my parents wouldn't be impressed by my sitting next to him, and for what it's worth, I'm not very impressed by it, either."

Professor Sisera was taken aback. She clearly hadn't expected a student to be so openly hateful towards another one, even less so in front of a member of staff.

"Miss Chapman!" She straightened, trying to seem more intimidating, "I think we all know that the rumours about Mr Malfoy's parentage are just that, rumours. Besides, I am not asking you to sit next to Mr Malfoy's parents, I am asking you to sit next to him. If you took the time to get to know him I'm sure you'd find that he's a positively decent human being."

Albus decided that Professor Sisera wasn't so bad after all. Now all she needed to do was sit Scorpius next to him so that this whole circus could come to an end.

"Yes, buuuuuuuuut," Polly piped up, "you also said you were going to try and mix genders, as well as houses, and you've sat me next to a Slytherin who is also a girl!"

The laughter grew louder.

"Silence!" Sisera called out uselessly, Polly's friends were close to hysterics and they had no intention of stopping whilst the show was still on-going, "Miss Chapman, I find it remarkable that you would have the cold heartedness to be so cruel to another student - "

"I find it remarkable that you'd sit me next to Shirley Riddle-" Polly began.

With this the room exploded into shrieks of laughter. A Slytherin girl with curly, black hair had thrown herself theatrically to the floor in fits of breathless guffaws whilst her friends wiped tears from their cheeks. Even the Gryffindors who, to their merit, had been trying to hide their amusement at Scorpius's expense were now chuckling happily away at Polly's display.

"Tell me Shirley, what was your real dad like?-" Polly mocked.

Scorpius said nothing.

"Shiiiiiirleeeeeey," Polly continued, "I want you to tell me about old daddy voldy morty."

Albus could see Scorpius ears had turned scarlett red, but he still didn't dare to say anything back to Polly.

"Oi, Shirl, I'm talking to you!" She raised her hand to Scorpius's face and poked a stubby finger at his forehead.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Albus's cry stunned the room into silence. 

Everyone turned to face him and gasped when they saw that he had his wand in his hand. He hadn't taken it out on purpose, he didn't even remember doing it, and he had no idea what he was going to do with it now.

"Oh look, Shirl!" Polly grabbed Scorpius by the elbow and turned him around by force, she clearly wasn't intimidated, "it's your boyfriend! He's come to rescue you! Shame he's a squib..."

"MISS CHAPMAN THAT IS ENOUGH!" Professor Sisera was standing on her chair now, she had clearly seen all she was willing to tolerate. "Mr Potter put away your wand and take a seat immediately! Polly Chapman, you will come to see me at 3pm so we can discuss your detentions for the following three weeks. Everyone else, gather your things and leave. We will have our first class on Tuesday afternoon and by that time I expect everyone who was rude enough to laugh during Miss Chapman's little performance to have apologized profoundly to Scorpius. And I never, ever, expect to see such a display of cruelty and hatred in my classroom again. Do I make myself clear?"

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"Do I make myself clear?" Sisera repeated, even louder this time.

"Yes, professor," the Slytherins and Gryffindors chimed weakly. Half of them felt bad but the other half were just disappointed that the entertainment had been cut short so abruptly.

"Very good, now leave. I've seen just about all I want to see from each and every one of you for today." She flicked her wand in the direction of the door and it flew open, showing the students exactly where she wanted them to go.

Through the hustle and bustle of students rushing to escape the Muggle Studies classroom so that they could resume their giggling and re-tell the story to their friends, Albus fought to catch up with Scorpius.

"Hey, Scorpius, wait!" he called out to his friend, but he either didn't hear him or he was purposefully ignoring him. "Scorpius!"

"What?" he snapped, turning to face Albus with what could almost be described as a look of disdain on his face.

"Hey, I just wanted to make sure you were ok..."

"Yes, I'm fine." He answered, sourly.

"Ok..." Albus hadn't expected such a cold response, he wasn't sure how to react.

"Anything else?" Scorpius asked in a tone that was far more fitting of his father than him.

"There's no need to be like that. I'm your friend, remember?" Albus's face had dropped. He wasn't to blame for what had just happened, and Scorpius knew it. So why was he treating him like this?

"I know." he frowned, finally, "I'm sorry. I know it's not your fault."

"Yeah... but it's cool." Albus lied, pretending to be unaffected.

"No, it's not." Scorpius shook his head, "I shouldn't have stormed off from you. I was just a bit, I don't know, weirded out by what she said."

"What do you mean? Polly Chapman's always been a bitch, what did you expect from her?" Albus was surprised that Scorpius was letting Polly's words affect him so much, he never had before.

"Yeah but this time she said something different. Something that she's never said before." He shifted uncomfortably, "let's just leave it. Ok?"

"Yeah... I guess so." Albus, once again, lied. He had no intention of leaving it. His best friend had clearly been affected by something Chapman had said and he was going to get to the bottom of it, but he also knew when to back down and now wasn't the time to be pressuring Scorpius for answers.

"Come on, it's nearly time for transfiguration. We might as well go straight there. Avoid the crowds." Scorpius suggested, foreseeing that by now most of fifth year would have heard about what had happened in the Muggle Studies classroom.

Albus followed Scorpius towards the staircase. Part of him wanted to give his best friend a hug, yet another wanted to run to the nearest bathroom and cry. Scorpius had never been anything but 100% loyal to Albus, and having him be angry towards him, even though it lasted less than a minute, had felt like having a red hot dagger plunged into his chest.

He tried to shake off the feeling, realising that he was being selfish – as always. Scorpius was the one who'd been laid into, not him, and he had the right to be angry with the world.

He pushed the feeling to the back of his mind and started to come up with a plan that would put his friend firmly back on the pedestal of optimism on which he belonged. He needed chocolate, and somewhere they could be alone...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, there you are. Thanks for taking the time to read it! I really hope you enjoyed it. It killed me a little writing the Polly Chapman stuff, I had to put myself in the mind of someone who would be cruel to Scorpius and obviously that was impossible. I hope it didn't come across too half-hearted!  
> Thanks again, Ira <3


	4. Chapter 4: Hogwart's Library

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! So here is chapter 4, what was originally going to be the ending of chapter 2 before I got so carried away. Sorry for the delay in posting it. I hope you enjoy it!  
> Ira <3

The late summer sun was beginning to set behind Hogwarts castle and its deep, orange rays were shining gently through the tall windows of the library. Scorpius had spent the last ten minutes contemplating the tiny specks of dust that were floating haphazardly around in the light, a piece of parchment lay on the desk in front of him, discarded and forgotten. 

He had been trying to write a letter to his father. He wanted to tell him what had happened in Muggle Studies, how he had been ridiculed by Polly Chapman and made to look like a fool. Then he wanted to tell him about how one of Polly's friends had asked their Transfiguration professor if there was a way to turn Shirley Riddle back into a boy.

He wanted to tell him that by lunchtime the whole school had heard about his ordeal and had christened him 'Mrs Shirley Potter', and most of all he wanted to tell him that he'd spent the last two classes of the day hiding in a solitary corner of the library crying, wishing he had somebody he could talk to who wasn't Albus, because after all, whether he realised it or not, Albus was the problem.

Even after five years Scorpius could still remember how he had felt the first time he'd met Albus Severus Potter on the Hogwart's Express. 

In the first instance, he'd been impressed by his cousin, Rose. As soon as she stepped foot in his compartment he'd felt her presence - she was a headstrong and determined individual, like no woman he'd ever met before. But the only emotion she had sparked in Scorpius was awe. Positive awe, but still nothing more.

With Albus it had been different. When he'd first laid eyes on Albus he'd felt his heart skip a beat, then speed up a little to catch up with itself, before skipping a few more. 

The way he'd looked at him, not with pity but understanding in his eyes, told him from the start that Albus was different. Then the way he'd spoken to him, defending him against his own cousin and accepting him despite all the odds, had taken his breath away. 

His feelings began in that very moment, and they had only grown stronger over the course of their first four years together at Hogwarts. During that last summer, though, Scorpius had spent many hours exploring and questioning the feelings he had for his best friend. He'd matured enough as a person to ask himself the difficult questions, those ones that he usually made start with what if... even though he already knew them to be true.

What if what I feel for Albus is more than just friendship?

What if I like him the same way (I pretend) I like Rose?

What if I like him more than I should like another boy?

He had allowed himself to come to the difficult, yet honest, conclusion that he did indeed feel things for Albus that were more than friendship. He did like boys. He liked Albus. He more than liked him, in fact, he was in love with him. He probably always had been.

For Scorpius, accepting his own feelings had felt like a release. Yet it had also bought him a lot of heartache. It had become clear to him during the first days of term that Albus didn't feel the same way. Ever since the train to school he hadn't stopped talking about girls and how he thought Scorpius was edging ever closer to a date with Rose. He'd even gone as far as to comment on how pretty a Hufflepuff girl in their Herbology class was.

Then this morning, in the Muggle Studies classroom, he had whipped out his wand in defence of Scorpius. Only this time there was no understanding in his eyes, only pity. Scorpius hadn't actually looked at him, but he knew it was there. Why else would Albus defend him? He was just his friend after all, and probably not for long if Albus ever found out about the feelings Scorpius was hiding from him. He'd just have to find a way to keep it from him. 

That was the problem, though, how do you keep something from someone you share everything with?

He looked back down at the parchment that was lying on the table in front of him. He had realised all too quickly, of course, that he couldn't tell his father any of this for fear of being disowned. His letter had gotten no further than 'Father, I hope all is well...' before he had given up and started thinking about Albus. Now the sun was disappearing and he needed to stop before the tears came back.

He scrunched the parchment up and stuffed it inside his messenger bag. By now there would be no students hanging around the corridors, they'd all be going down for dinner. Scorpius wasn't hungry. He just wanted to go to the dungeons and get into bed. Hopefully he'd be asleep before Albus returned and so he wouldn't have to face him again until the next day.

His hopes were smashed the moment he stepped out of the library. 

"I knew you'd be here," Albus beamed from across the corridor. He had changed out of his school uniform but the clothes he wore under his cloak were much smarter than his usual t-shirt and jeans combo.

"Albus, what are you doing here?" Scorpius asked, trying to force his usual brightness into his voice. He knew he was failing.

"Well," Albus began, "this morning my best mate was a bit peeved off 'cos he'd had a run in with this massive cow called Potty Chapstick, so I've taken the liberty of planning a little surprise for him that should cheer him right back up."

Albus beamed again, clearly pleased with himself.

"Potty Chapstick?" Scorpius gave Albus a sarcastic glare, "is that the best you could do?"

"A simple insult for a simple mind," Albus replied, "the emphasis was on the massive cow part anyway, and you already know that bits true."

"It is." Scorpius agreed with a nod.

"So come on then, you're looking glummer than a dementor and we've only got a couple of hours before lights out."

"What? You mean we're not going to the common room?"

"Nope." Albus took a step towards Scorpius.

Where are you taking me Albus...?"

"You'll see." With that Albus placed a hand decidedly on Scorpius's shoulder and began to steer him down the first floor corridor towards the Grand Staircase. Before they reached it, however, he took an abrupt turn to the left and steered Scorpius straight into a green and brown tapestry.

To Scorpius's surprise, rather than eating a face full of cotton and stone he fell straight through the tapestry and into a room he'd never seen before.

"Wow..." was all he managed to say.

The room they were stood in wasn't particularly large, but it was certainly beautiful. The floor was covered in a thick, shaggy carpet and the stones of the walls glimmered and shone, as if someone had enchanted them to look like they were covered in little specks of silver and gold.

In the middle of the room was a series of four soft-looking sofas, arranged in a square around a large wooden coffee table so that whoever was sat at them was always facing their companions. On top of the table were two large bottle of butterbeer and what looked like a box of Honeydukes chocolates. 

The most impressive part of the room was, however, the enormous floor to ceiling windows that covered the back wall. Scorpius had never seen anything like it in Hogwarts before. They seemed modern, much more modern than the rest of the castle. There were cushions placed on the sils for people to sit on and look out across the Great Lake, and Scorpius couldn't help but dream of how romantic it would be to sit there with Albus one day. 

"Like it?" Albus asked after giving his friend a while to admire his discovery. He could see it had impressed him, and he was feeling very pleased with himself.

"What is this place?" Scorpius asked.

"The Beauxbatons common room," Albus answered, "this was put here during the Triwizard Tournament so that the Beauxbatons girls could have somewhere to go inside the castle whilst they weren't doing anything else. They slept in their carriage, of course, so there are no beds, but it's nice right?"

"Yeah, it's amazing," Scorpius ignored the voice inside his head that was asking why Albus would want a bed for them, and asked a more suitable question "but how did you find it?"

"Uncle George."

"Of course." Scorpius knew all about Albus's uncles, Fred and George Weasley. They had gained notoriety for their pranks and antics around Hogwarts, there'd even been books written about them in the years following the Battle of Hogwarts, in which Fred had lost his life. 

"It was thanks to Uncle George that I managed to get butterbeer and chocolates from Hogsmeade, too." Albus began explaining as he took off his shoes and made his way towards the sofas, "I know you like them, so within the next twenty-or-so minutes I expect that frown that's been plastered on your face all morning to have been replaced by your usual lovely smile." 

Scorpius noticed that Albus had turned a little red when he'd said his smile was lovely, but he knew it as just the pity speaking.

He took a seat on the sofa opposite Albus, he didn't take his shoes or cloak off though. For some reason, and despite his best friend having seen him getting changed in the boys dormitory hundreds of times, Scorpius felt that by not relaxing he was protecting himself from the harm Albus could potentially do him. He thought of it as a barrier, something like a patronus for his heart.

This barrier, as it were, lasted less than an hour. That was the time it took them to finish the first bottle of butter beer and the whole box of chocolates. After that, they took the second bottle and sat next to one of the wall-length windows.

"It really is quite beautiful," Albus observed as he lit four candles with his wand and made them float lightly above their heads.

Just like you. Scorpius wanted to say.

"Yes. It is." Scorpius did say.

"I don't think anyone else knows about this room, so it can be our secret if you want," Albus suggested.

"It would indeed be nice to have somewhere to go to just get away from it all," Scorpius admitted.

"Exactly." Albus said nothing more. There was no way he would ever let Scorpius know about the other things he was thinking. Little did he know that Scorpius was imagining exactly the same thing, only his blonde friend wasn't going to admit it either.

"We should be heading down to the common room," Scorpius finally said, when the second bottle of butterbeer was empty.

Reluctantly Albus agreed, and the two of them tidied their temporary hiding space up before leaving and making their way back to reality. 

Scorpius considered his day as they walked quietly down the Grand Staircase. It had been one of his worst, but it had ended well. Albus may not have realised how painful his comments about Rose and girls were to Scorpius, but he certainly knew his best friend well enough to cheer him up even when he was in the worst of moods, and for that Scorpius thanked him. 

He knew, however, that with every day that passed it would get more and more difficult for him to enjoy the time he spent with Albus as just friends. Eventually, he would either have to confess his feelings to him or abandon their friendship altogether. Either way he was going to lose the only friend he'd ever had - he just needed to figure out which way would hurt the person he loved the most, the least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you go! As I said before, chapters 2, 3 and 4 were actually all just one huge chapter but as I had to split them I took the opportunity to switch the POV in this one and explore Scorpius's mind a little more. In the next chapter we'll jump forward in time a little and in the following chapters we'll start seeing some other characters! I hope you enjoyed it!


	5. Chapter 5: Hogsmeade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the fifth chapter! It's really somewhat of a transition chapter leading us up to Christmas (which is when some action is going to take place) but I wanted to take the opportunity to inject some happiness into the story. After all, that is what falling in love is about, however difficult it may be!

The final weeks of September passed quickly and by October the last of the warm, summery days had been replaced by the frosty mornings and dark nights of Autumn. By the first week of October all of the students, especially the fifth years, were feeling tired and stressed. A trip to Hogsmeade to celebrate Bonfire Night was exactly what they needed to take their minds off the piles of OWL homework they had, and fortunately for them, on the first Saturday of the month they had one.

"I think it's a great shame that the muggles throw a doll of Guy Fawkes on the fire. A personification of Eloi O'Bran would be much more appropriate, don't you think?" Scorpius asked Albus as they made their way towards Hogsmeade on Saturday afternoon. The snow had already began to fall in the town, but it hadn't reached the castle yet.

"Who the hell is Eloi O'Bran?" Albus asked. his interest wasn't genuine, but he was pleased to see that Scorpius was back to his usual happy self, muttering away about little-known facts and quoting century-old textbooks. At the start of term he'd been acting strangely. Albus had gotten the impression that he wanted to distance himself from him, but since then everything seemed to have gone back to normal. 

"Eloi O'Bran was the wizard who put Guy Fawkes under the imperius curse. He wanted to blow up the muggle houses of parliament and take control of the population. Obviously. It as all to do with pure blood supremacy, as you can probably imagine" Scorpius rattled on.

"Yeah, obviously." Agreed Albus, although he'd never heard anything about Guy Fawkes being put under any kind of mind control spell, and he was beginning to question whether Scorpius himself had been confunded.

"If the wizarding population hadn't been involved in the events that Bonfire Night remembers," Scorpius began, as if reading the doubts in Albus's mind, "then they wouldn't celebrate it in Hogsmeade, would they? After all, it's the only all wizarding village in Britain."

He did have a point. 

When they reached the village preparations for the celebration were already well underway. The main street had been decorated with bunting that hung between the snow-covered rooftops and little wooden baskets, which a few weeks ago had been full of Halloween themed gifts, stood outside shops, filled to the brim with small logs of firewood.

"Children buy a log and throw it onto the unlit bonfire, then when they get the signal they use one of their parent's wands to set fire to it with incendio." Scorpius began explaining, almost in autopilot now, "they have no idea how to do it of course, they've never been allowed to touch a wand before let along cast an actual spell. Their dads usually stand behind casting non-verbal versions of it. Still, it's quite fun. My dad used to take me when I was little."

"I didn't even know wizards celebrated Bonfire Night." Albus admitted, "to be honest I just came for the butterbeer."

"Well, one really should focus more on the tradition of an event like this, rather than on overpriced, buttery beverages, but I suppose it would be cruel of me to deny you such a treat." Scorpius took the hint and led them into The Three Broomsticks to order two steaming tankards of the foamy, sweet drink. 

The pub was busy, as it always was on visit days, and the only table available was a tiny one shoved up in the far corner of the room. It was cramped, but private, just the way Scorpius and Albus liked it. The less people that could see them the less chance their was of being harassed by their classmates.

"So," Albus started the conversation before Scorpius had the chance to bombard him with more historical facts, "are you looking forward to the Christmas holidays?"

Scorpius took a slow sip of his drink before considering his answer carefully.

"Perhaps."

"Perhaps?" Albus grinned, "Scorp you just took like ten minutes to come up with an answer that isn't even a real answer."

Albus began to chuckle to himself.

"Well, I don't have a real answer," he replied, "I am looking forward to seeing my father, yes, but I'm not looking forward to being away from Hogwarts for nearly three weeks. I have a lot of studying to do. Therefore, my answer is perhaps."

Albus rolled his eyes.

"And since when did you call me Scorp?" His blonde friend added.

Albus's laughter halted immediately and the wrinkles that formed around his eyes when he smiled vanished. They were replaced with the deep scarlet of embarrassment as he realised what he'd said.

"Did I say that out loud?" He muttered, "I mean... not that it's something I've been calling you in my head or anything. I just mean, that, well..."

He stopped speaking before he had the chance to dig an even deeper hole.

"I like it." Scorpius finally said with a shrug, and he began to giggle to himself, "why has it got you all in a bother? You look like a tomato."

"All in a bother"? Albus began to laugh again, "who the hell says all in a bother? I thought you were 15, not 82."

"Scorp says it," Scorpius answered, and they began to laugh together. It was silly, really. They were laughing at nothing, and as the time passed and more and more butterbeers were bought they laughed even more. They laughed about Hogwarts, they laughed about their parents, they laughed about themselves, and most of all, they laughed about Polly Chapman.

"You know," Scorpius gasped between guffaws, "I've been calling her Potty Chapstick in my head ever since you said it that day at the start of term."

"In your head?" Albus pulled a face, "I've been saying it to her face every day for the last two months!"

They burst into yet another fit of teenage giggles.

"What's got you guys so happy?" A voice asked.

Albus and Scorpius immediately looked up to see who had interrupted their laughter session. They had expected to see Polly's latest fling coming over to lay into them, but they were surprised to see James Potter's smiling face looking down at them. 

"James?" Albus asked, slightly too viciously. "Since when did you acknowledge my existence at school?"

James tutted.

"I just came over to say hi to my little brother," he pointed to the other end of the bar, where three seventh year Gryffindors were sitting, butterbeer in one hand and textbooks in the other, "my friends aren't exactly the best of company at the moment."

"Right." Albus replied dryly.

Sensing that his friend wasn't going to have the social awareness to do so, and wanting to escape the awkwardness that was Albus's relationship with his family, Scorpius asked James if he'd like to join them and then immediately excused himself to the restroom when he accepted.

"So," James began as he took the seat Scorpius had left empty, "how are things?"

"Fine." Albus didn't try to hide his suspicion. James had never, ever, spoken a single word to him at Hogwarts, so why was he sat in The Three Broomsticks trying to make small talk with him now?

"Ok, well, I'm good too. Thanks for asking." His said sarcastically.

There was an awkward silence which, after a few moments, was finally broken by James.

"OK. So - here's what it is..." he began.

"I knew you hadn't just come over for a friendly chat." Albus interrupted, his suspicions confirmed. "What do you want?"

"I'm not trying to cause trouble, I'm just looking out for you." The older Potter began, and Albus listened sceptically to what his brother had to say. "You know that mum, dad, Lilly and I love you and will support you through anything, right?"

Albus gave a short nod. What was this all about?

"Well, this thing with Scorpius - I'm not saying it's wrong or anything - but I really think you should give dad the heads up. Better to warn him before he gets any nasty surprises..." James gave Albus a small smile, but he was clearly unsure of how his little speech was going to go down with his younger, far more brash, brother.

"James... what are you talking about?" Albus was confused, "dad's known Scorpius is my best friend since first year. I think he's probably over the shock by now..."

"Yeah but, I'm not talking about your friendship," James leaned in and began to whisper, "I'm talking about the other thing."

"What other thing?" Albus asked, not bothering to lower his own voice.

"Shh!" James hushed him, "look! I'm not interested in what goes on in the Slytherin dorms, it's none of my business and I wouldn't care even if it was, but people have been talking about you and him for months and I just don't think it's fair for dad to find out that his son's a - well, you know what you are - from a stranger."

Although he wasn't entirely sure he knew what James was insinuating, Albus had a pretty good idea, and he could feel the anger starting to bubble in his stomach.

"You have no idea what you're talking about." He snapped, "and even if what you're saying wasn't total crap I wouldn't be losing sleep over the embarrassment that it would cause to our precious father. I got used to doing that years ago."

James's mood darkened, and although he kept whispering, there was now an unmistakeable note of anger in his voice.

"Albus stop being so goddam selfish. Our father is Harry Potter. He's the head of the Magical Law Enforcement office. If he finds out you've been messing around with guys he's gonna flip. I've tried to be nice and help you, but you clearly aren't willing to listen. So either you tell him about this little thing you've got going on with the Malfoy boy, or I will. Either way, the sooner he puts an end to it, the better."

Albus was shocked. He didn't know what to say. 

"James..." he began, but he had no words.

His brother's expression was solid, he was serious, as serious as he'd ever seen James be and Albus could think of only one way to break it. He laughed.

James looked puzzled, it wasn't the reaction he'd been expecting.

"Albus, I'm serious..." 

Albus laughed again, throwing his head back this time, as if he'd never heard anything so ridiculous in his life.

"I know what's happened here!" Albus began to lie, rather convincingly he thought, "You've heard one of Polly Chapman's rumours.She's been calling me and Scorpius Mr and Mrs Potter for months because I made her look like an idiot in our first Muggle Studies class. It's just her spreading gossip around the school, there's no truth to it."

His brother didn't seem convinced, but Albus held his amused expression, he just hoped it reached his eyes.

"So..." James's mood seemed to lift a little as he began to speak, "you're not seeing Malfoy?"

"How can I be "seeing" Malfoy, you idiot? He's a guy, that would be disgusting." Albus put all his effort into trying to make his brother believe the nonsense that was coming out of his mouth.

"Are you sure?" James asked, still refusing to believe what he was being told.

"Yes. James. I am sure." Albus said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right!" James's face broke back into a smile and he relaxed his shoulders, "man, I knew that couldn't have been true!"

Albus chuckled.

"I'm sorry Albus, I should've known you better than that. I was just a little... concerned about what people have been saying. I guess I shouldn't listen to rumours though, right?" James got up from his seat, he clearly had nothing more to say now that his concerns had been calmed. "Can we just forget about this?"

"Yeah. Well, I guess you were just looking out for me." Albus's cheeks were beginning to hurt from all the fake smiling, but he was pleased the awkward conversation seemed to be over.

"Thanks, though." He added. 

He waved as James walked back over to his friends and forced himself to forget what had just happened as he saw Scorpius approaching. He'd clearly been waiting for James to leave before he came back to the table. 

Although he hadn't heard any of the conversation that the brothers had just had Scorpius could tell that something was up. He chose to put it down to all the butterbeer, though - you didn't need to be of age to drink it because the alcohol content was so low, but after the five or six tankards that they'd each drunk it was bound to have had an effect.

Albus let him believe it. The last thing he needed was to have to admit to Scorpius what had just happened. There was no need for his best friend to know that his brother thought they were seeing each other. He'd be repulsed by it, and rightfully so.

He bought the conversation back to the wizarding world's version of Bonfire Night and allowed Scorpius to reel out a list of facts and figures about the event. Albus couldn't help, however, imagining the things that James had said to him.

He imagined the ridicule he would receive from Polly Chapman if he were Scorpius's boyfriend. He imagined the hatred in James's eyes every time they passed on the landing at home. He imagined his father's anger and disappointment at having a gay son, and most of all he imagined his mother's tears.

It all disgusted him. It made him feel sick just to think about it. It was unnatural, and he knew it. There was no way any of James's suspicions could ever become reality.

However, and despite all that, he couldn't stop imagining the other things either, the nicer things. like; holding Scorpius's hand as they sat side by side on the Hogwarts Express; cuddling up against him in front of the fire at Christmas; stroking his light, blonde hair as he fell to sleep in his arms and standing next to him as they waved their own children off on platform 9 3/4.

These things didn't disgust Albus. They didn't disgust him one bit. And as the night went on, and firecrackers were launched, and bonfires were ignited, he began to ask himself what it was that truly disgusted him: The idea of being with Scorpius as more than just friends, or the notion of what people would think about him being with Scorpius?

The more he thought about it, the more he began to think it was the latter.

And it terrified him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you go! I hope you enjoyed reading. Please feel free to leave a comment, I love hearing your opinions and suggestions on how I could make the story better.   
> Thanks,  
> Ira <3


	6. Chapter 6

"Avifors!" Scorpius proclaimed, trying to imitate the same clear and determined voice that Professor McGonagall had demonstrated to them many times. He pointed his wand at the cushion that lay in front of him, waiting for it to sprout feathers and come to life. It didn't move. 

"Hmm." He turned it over in his hands to see if his spell had had any effect, but it hadn't. He took a few steps back and tried again.

"Avifors!" This time he said it louder, more aggressively, but still nothing happened.

Scorpius had been trying to master this spell for months. Theoretically transfiguring a cushion into a bird shouldn't be too difficult, provided that the cushion is stuffed with feathers, but Scorpius hadn't had any luck.

He'd read the theory over and over, he'd even been to the library to find other textbooks that explained the same spell in different terms, but he still couldn't do it.

It was strange. Scorpius had never been particularly good at duelling spells, but his charms and transfiguration work had always been rather successful. His father had often said that he had a gift for mastering the more complex nuances of magic. Yet this spell completely eluded him.

He sighed and gave up. His father wouldn't approve, of course, because as far as Draco Malfoy was concerned giving up was a weakness. But Scorpius had seen what that kind of hard-headedness did to a person, and he wasn't going to end up that way.

He threw the cushion back onto the sofa and made his way over to the fire. He had always admired the way the tall, wild flames bounced their reflections off the dark marble of the Slytherin common rooms floor as they flickered.

It was barely 6 A.M and the December sun was yet to rise on the castle. Scorpius had been spending many mornings on the sofa, contemplating life as he watched the flames dance in the fireplace, recently. He found it relaxing, and he'd reached many a conclusion whilst sat there.

The first had come to him a week prior. He'd been thinking, as usual, about Albus. A whole term had passed since they returned to Hogwarts and in that time Scorpius and Albus had gone from being the best of friends to snapping at each other and seeking distance. Their 'happy moments', as Scorpius liked to call them, had become few and far between.

At first Scorpius had blamed himself. He was intelligent enough to know that since coming to terms with his feelings for Albus he had been somewhat erratic in his behaviour. He had tried to hide his love by masking it with anger. It was a normal reaction in teenagers, or at least that's what the books he'd read in the library told him, and he'd been trying to deal with that in recent weeks.

He'd also felt guilt, though, and a great deal of self pity. He'd convinced himself that he couldn't continue being friends with Albus if there was nothing more to it. He thought it would hurt him too much, but he also knew that telling Albus that he was in love with him would destroy their friendship just as quickly. One day in the library, he'd even gone as far as writing his two options on a piece of parchment and trying to make a list of positives and negatives for each one. His options were:

A) End his friendship with Albus to protect himself, even though in the short term it would break his heart.

B) Confess his feelings to Albus and lose his friendship, and respect, regardless.

It didn't take him long to realise that these two options presented a paradox. If his greatest fear with option B was that he would lose Albus's friendship, then he clearly wasn't willing to end his friendship with him in the first place - which rendered option A irrelevant.

In fact, the last thing Scorpius wanted was to lose Albus altogether, and so he had allowed himself to start believing that there was an option C.

Maybe, just maybe, there was the tiniest chance that Albus wouldn't abandon Scorpius if he knew he were gay, he might even accept him. He knew this was too much to ask, and he was letting his imagination run a little wild with this one (fantasies is what his books called them) but he'd even let himself consider the idea that Albus could feel the same way.

He was being stupid, though. He almost made himself laugh with the absurdness of the idea. Albus's behaviour had made it more than a tad clear that the only thing he was interested in this year was finding a girlfriend and, if the opportunity presented itself, finding one for Scorpius too.

And as if that wasn't evidence enough, Albus had been behaving equally as strangely as Scorpius for the last three months. He'd lost him temper on numerous occasions and he'd been spending less and less time with Scorpius. That isn't to say they weren't still best friends, but Scorpius felt that Albus wasn't telling him everything like he'd used to. He felt like there was something he was hiding from him, perhaps something he wanted to keep for his future girlfriend.

The knowledge that Albus would eventually find a girlfriend hurt Scorpius unbearably. He knew that when that time came he would be relegated to second place in Albus's list of most-important-people, and the secrets he kept from him would become ever more numerous as he chose to confide in the girl he loved, rather than the boy he pitied.

It had never occurred to Scorpius, as it never occurs to any of us when we are in love, that at the root of Albus's strange behaviour could be the same feelings and uncertainty that he himself had been dealing with. If he had known that then things would have been a lot easier for him. If he had known that then he wouldn't have been sat in front of the common room fire at 6 A.M, allowing toxic thoughts to fill his head with sadness and regret. If he had known that, then he would have been able to stop the tears that were slowly forming in his eyes.

Unfortunately, and somewhat inevitably at the age of 15, he had no way of knowing any of those things, and so he allowed the tears to roll slowly down his cheeks. 

\-----

Upstairs, Albus was having a dream; the same dream he'd been having almost every night for weeks now.

It always started the same way, he was sat at the dinner table in his parent's house, looking out of the window at the street in front. There was never anybody else in the house with him, but there was always someone in the street, standing in the middle of the road. Sometimes it was a muggle celebrity he'd seen on his dad's TV, other times it was a model from the wizarding world that he'd seen advertising robes, but it was always a man - a very attractive one. 

Then someone else would appear. A shorter, skinnier boy. With light, almost silver, blonde hair. He'd enter from the left, a huge, goofy smile on his face. That smile always warmed Albus's heart, but in the dream the smile wasn't for him. It was for the other man.

With each step that Scorpius took, slowly yet with determination, Albus began to panic. He knew what was coming and he wanted to stop it. He could see the love in Scorpius's eyes, he could feel the passion radiating off the two men and it made him rage.

He made to stand up but he couldn't, something was holding him to the chair.

"No!" he gasped, every time, but it was no use, there was no way of moving.

"Scorp!" he cried, as loud as his lungs would allow him to, but he couldn't do anything. The two men were now toe to toe, and he knew what was coming next.

He wouldn't watch it, he couldn't, but his eyes wouldn't close, as they never do in a dream. He forced his head down, refusing to look at what was happening in front of him.

Then, as always, he felt five strong fingers run through his hair and pull his head back, pain shot through his scalp as he was forced to watch as Scorpius planted a delicate kiss firmly on the other man's lips. It wasn't any old kiss either, it was full of passion, full of love. It was the kiss that had been destined for Albus, but this stranger had stolen it from him because he'd been too weak to do anything about it.

Only then, as he cried out in pain at the realisation that he had lost Scorpius by his own weakness, did he realise that the person forcing him to watch, and the person holding him in his chair was James.

He woke with a start.

He always woke up at the same moment, sweat pouring down his forehead and panic in his eyes.

He took a few deep breaths to steady his heartbeat, and then looked over to Scorpius's bed to make sure he hadn't seen anything. Today, though, his bed was empty. It wasn't the first time this had happened, Scorpius was waking earlier and earlier now, and Albus had never bothered to look for him. Today though, as there was no way he would be able to get back to sleep, he decided to change that.

He got out of bed carefully, slipping on a pair of woollen socks as he did so, and made his way out of the dormitory. He didn't have to go far to find Scorpius, he was sitting on the black, leather sofa, staring into the flames of the fire.

Part of Albus wanted to stay there, at the top of the stairs, watching Scorpius. Recently he had found it much easier to be around his friend when the other didn't know he was there. It was safer that way, he didn't have to hide anything.

This morning though, he sensed that his friend needed him. He seemed solemn, very un-Scorpius-like, and Albus thought he knew why.

He'd been pushing his friend away, partly because of the unnatural thoughts he'd been having about his relationship with him, and partly because of the sick accusations James had made that day in Hogsmeade. He was going to change that now.

"Hey, Scorp," he muttered as he entered the common room.

"Oh," Scorpius seemed surprised to see him, and for some reason he didn't make eye contact with Albus, "you're up early!"

"I could say the same to you," Albus took a seat next to his friend and realised that his eyes were red, "are you ok?"

"Yes, Yes, of course! I was just trying to turn this cushion into a bird, you know..." he tapped the cushion with his hand and forced a smile. "I still haven't gotten the hang of it though."

"Right," Albus nodded, "and that made you cry?"

"What!? I wasn't crying," Scorpius rolled his eyes, "have you seen the time, Albus? I'm barely awake, I'm just tired, I wasn't crying."

"Oh, ok. Good, then!" Albus relaxed a little, although he wasn't entirely convinced that Scorpius was telling the truth. 

"And you?" His friend asked.

"And me what?"

"Are you ok?"

"Oh, yeah, I just couldn't sleep." Albus knew he couldn't tell Scorpius about the nightmare, for obvious reasons.

"Ah, ok." Scorpius turned his attention back to the fire.

"Look, Scorp." Albus began, "I think I owe you an apology. These last few weeks, well months, really, I've been a bit weird. I don't know if you've noticed that?"

"What? Oh... no, not at all!" Scorpius lied, badly.

"Well, I feel like I've not been treating you the way a best friend should. You know, I've been a bit mental." Albus was choosing his words carefully, "I think it's just the stress of OWLs and stuff."

"I was thinking that maybe during the Christmas holidays we could hang out? Away from school and the stress? Maybe you could come round or something..." Albus had embarrassed himself with this invite, and so began to backtrack, "you probably have loads of stuff to do though so... never mind - "

"I'd really like to!" Scorpius interrupted, far too quickly, and with far too much enthusiasm. 

To Albus it felt like the person who had been sitting next to him a second ago had vanished, and he had been replaced by the real Scorpius Malfoy. The huge smile on his face, authentic and natural, for the first time since Bonfire Night, seemed to confirm that.

"Yeah?" Albus was happy, "cool! So tell your dad to send mine an owl, and we'll see what we can do."

"Perfect," Scorpius's smile didn't fade, but after a moment or two he turned his attention back to the fire. Strangely, both boys felt like no more words needed to be said.

A small silence befell them, but it wasn't awkward, it was natural and, in Albus's opinion, nice. The only sounds were the songs of the morning's first birds as they sensed the rise of the sun approaching, and the jolly spitting of the warm fire.

Albus allowed his body to relax a little, he felt himself wanting to lean closer to Scorpius. He didn't allow himself to, of course. He was worried that by doing so Scorpius would sense the awkwardness he was feeling.

He didn't, as it happens, but what he did feel was the warmth, and the uncertainty, that were equally as prevalent in his best friend's heart, and he did what Scorpius Malfoy always did in these situations. He put his arm around Albus's shoulder and hugged him gently.

For a moment, Albus allowed himself to forget about the dream, forget about his feelings and forget about James. He just allowed himself to feel the love flow through him, and began to remember why Scorpius was his best friend in the first place.


	7. Chapter 7

It was 8 A.M on the last day of term and the Hogwarts students were lined up at Hogsmeade station waiting to board the Hogwarts Express.

"Do you really need so much stuff?" Albus asked Scorpius as he observed the three trunkloads of belongings that were sat on the platform next to him.

"Of course I do, if I didn't I wouldn't be taking it all." His friend answered matter-of-factly.

"I could've sworn you only had one when we came..."

"I did. But I had father send me two more so I could carry all my books home. I'm going to need them for the holidays." Scorpius was referring to the piles of homework they'd been set by their professors, but Albus was sure that a great deal of the books he was carrying were for extra reading.

"You do realise it's Christmas, right?" He asked joking, "you're supposed to spend it eating mince pies and watching reruns on TV."

Scorpius pulled a face.

"I don't know what a mince pie is and TVs don't work in my house, there's too much magic. Besides, why would you want to watch something you've already seen before?"

"Because it's Christmas Scorp, you have to watch the classics." Albus rolled his eyes and chuckled. "When you come to mine make sure you don't let Lily hear you say you've never watched TV before, she'll make you sit through all her Disney DVDs."

"I'll try not to mention it." Scorpius grinned, both he and Albus had been looking forward to the time they were going to spend together in the Potter household since Harry had sent an owl confirming it a few days prior.

For Albus, it would be the first time that had friend of his had been to his house, and for Scorpius it would be the closest he had ever been to a muggle environment - the Potters lived in a town with almost no other witches or wizards.

"Do you promise we can go to Starbuck's?" He asked, excitement in his voice.

"Scoooorp," Albus laughed, "stop banging on about bloody Starbuck's - you know it's basically the McDonald's of the coffee world, right?. Why don't we go to a normal, family run coffee shop instead? There's a good one near mine."

"Does it have Wi-Fi?" Scorpius asked with a look of serious concern on his face.

Albus burst out laughing.

"Why the hell do you want Wi-Fi? What would you even use Wi-Fi for?" 

"Well... I don't know. But it's all the rage in the muggle world, I read about it in one of my books."

"Of course you did, Scorp," Albus continued to giggle to himself as they loaded their trunks onto the train.

Things had been normal between the two boys during the last week of term. Albus had decided that there was nothing he could do about his feelings, and he was going to ignore them for the time being, and Scorpius had decided that he valued Albus's friendship more than his own heartbreak. Either way, they both knew that they couldn't carry on that way forever, but they at least wanted to get through Christmas.

"You know what," Albus continued their conversation when they were finally sat in their usual compartment, "it would actually be quite useful for you to get a phone."

"I have a phone," Scorpius replied, "I've called you from it before."

"No, Scorp, I don't mean that kind of phone." Albus knew that Scorpius was referring to the 1950s style, rotary dial phone that had been enchanted to work inside Malfoy Manor. "I mean a smartphone, so that we can talk more during the holidays."

"A smartphone?" Scorpius began to laugh.

"What?" Albus asked,

"Noth- nothing." Scorpius laughter got louder, and more uncontrollable. 

"What are you laughing at, you massive loon?" Albus asked again, starting to get annoyed that he wasn't involved in the joke.

"Because- because they call it a- a smart phone," as the intensity of his laughter increased tears began to roll down his cheeks, "as if the phone were smart!"

This time he doubled over, gasping for air as he laughed into his knees.

"Scorp!" Albus said, trying to sound annoyed but failing as Scorpius's inexplicable laughter infected him, "it's not that funny you idiot!"

"I know! I know!" he tried to hold in the laughter, "that's what's so funny about it!"

He'd always found the muggles' ways of dealing without magic fascinating, and he had a great deal of respect for their creativity, but some things tickled him - referring to a cellular telephone as if it were intelligent was one of them.

It took another five minutes for him to calm down and control his fit of giggles. 

"But seriously," he asked when the laughter had subsided, "can we go to Starb-"

"No!" Albus half-shouted. 

"OK! Ok!" Scorpius raised his hands in defeat, he knew he would get to go to Starbuck's in the end, and letting Albus think he'd won for now was way to win him over. 

"Father and I are going to eat out this evening," he said, changing the subject, "we never eat out. I'm actually quite looking forward to it."

Albus knew that for Scorpius that was quite something, his relationship with his father had never been as volatile as Harry and Albus's, but Draco Malfoy was notorious for his serious manner and almost non-existent sense of humour. Scorpius had always gotten on best with him when he was sat in the library reading, and his father was sat in his study working. It hadn't surprised Albus to learn that these two rooms were in the two opposite wings of Malfoy Manor.

"We're going out for tea, too" Albus replied, "where are you going?"

"A restaurant on Rue de l'hex," Scorpius replied in a perfect French accent, "it's the largest, and most exclusive, magical street in Paris. Rather like Diagon Alley, but posher, and in France. What about you?"

"Hmm." Albus hadn't expected such an exotic answer, "I think we're going to a pizza place... they've opened a new one in town."

"A pizza place?" Scorpius's eyes lit up.

"Yeah, it's got a buffet..." Albus answered, a little embarrassed.

"A buffet... of pizza?" 

"Well, yeah. It's not as fancy as Paris though." Albus wanted to change the subject, but Scorpius was intrigued, he'd never been keen on the expensive restaurants his father frequented, he'd much rather go to a pizza buffet.

"Do they have dessert on this buffet?" he asked.

"Hmm, I think they have an ice cream machine."

"With chocolate sauce?"

"Yeah..." 

"It sounds like heaven!" 

"It does?"

Scorpius spent the rest of the journey quizzing Albus on the wonders that were muggle restaurant franchises. He didn't stop until his friend had promised to take him to each and every one of them, at least twice.

When the Hogwarts Express finally came to a standstill at platform 9 3/4 the whole Potter/Granger/Weasley clan were waiting to greet their children.

Lily, Hugo and Rose were the first off the train, stepping immediately into the arms of their parents. James followed shortly, greeting his parents with a small embrace. Albus chose to hang back for a moment, he wanted to say goodbye to Scorpius in the privacy of the train.

"Yes, Scorpius," he said, "I promise I will write to you tonight and tell you all about the pizza buffet."

"And reserve us a table at Starbuck's!" His friend replied, before wrapping his arms around him and pulling him into a tight hug.

"You don't have to reserve tables at a coffee shop Scorp," he joked, returning the hug.

"Do it anyway, just in case."

With that they parted and went their separate ways, and although Albus knew he would see Scorpius in less than a week, it still pained him to say farewell. He was so used to having him by his side day in, day out that he'd grown accustomed to it.

He began to realise now, as he walked along the platform towards his mom and dad, that perhaps all the time he had spent mulling over his conflicting feelings, rather than enjoying his time with Scorpius, had been a waste.

He made a mental promise to himself that after the holidays, regardless of the crazy things that were going on inside his head, he was going to make a greater effort with is best friend, because one day he might not have the chance to.

"Come on Al!" Harry called out as he saw his son approaching slowly, "we haven't got all day!"

"Hey mom, hey dad," he replied as he accepted an obligatory hug from his mother and father.

"How's everything been?" His father asked.

"Have you been looking after yourself?" His mother interjected.

"You are looking well, I have to say, have you been eating more vegetables?" Aunt Hermione asked.

"I just can't get over how tall you are," his father again, "you're nearly taller than me now!"

Albus smiled and mumbled the necessary answers as the age-old questions kept coming, it came naturally to him now. He noticed, though, that with every smile and compliment he received from his elders James's expression grew colder and colder, by the time they had left the station it had turned into what could only be described as a look of sheer hatred.

Albus tried to ignore it, but he could feel it burning into him from behind whenever he wasn't looking. He didn't know what his brother's problem was, but it was clearly quite a big one.

James didn't speak a word to Albus during the trip to their home, nor did he speak to him in the car on the way to the restaurant, and when they arrived, and despite the fact they were sat next to each other, he still didn't direct a single word in his little brother's direction.

Albus tried his best not to pay any attention, however, he had promised James that there was nothing going on between him and Scorpius, and he had believed him. The last time they had spoken James had been relieved and smiling, so why was he being like this now?

He almost raised the subject at the dinner table, but just as he was about to his father asked about Scorpius.

"So, Draco sent me an owl yesterday confirming Scorpius's visit on Wednesday. I think he's quite looking forward to it." 

"It'll be nice for him to get out of that big, grey house." Ginny agreed as, in a failed attempt to hide the six slices of pizza she'd stolen from her husband and children, she filled her plate with salad leaves.

"Has Scorpius ever actually been to a non-wizarding town before, Al?" Harry asked.

"Nope." Albus replied with a mouth full of the lasagne he'd ordered, choosing to give the buffet a miss, "actually he's really looking forward to it. We're gonna go to Starbuck's - "

"Oh no not there," his mother pulled a face, "you can't take the poor boy to Starbuck's Al, you need to take him somewhere less, well, artificial."

"Seeeeeriously, Starbucks of allllll the places" Lily rolled her eyes in mock exasperation, clearly trying to imitate her mother but making a fairly good job of imitating a 14 year old Hermione Granger.

"You know they've opened an organic smoothie bar in the book store in town," Ginny continued, "they do coffee there and it's far more pleasant than Starbuck's."

As soon as she mentioned books Albus knew that it was the perfect place to take Scorpius.

"Can we go there?" he asked, excited now, "it sounds perfect!"

"Of course!" Ginny answered, "your father or I will take you in the car, you know I much prefer you boys going somewhere that sells things made from the Earth, rather than all the oil, sugar and salt they stick in those American coffees."

"Mom, I'm pretty sure American coffee doesn't contain oil or sugar..."

"And you really should have ordered a salad, rather than that massive pizza," his mother had turned her attention to Harry now, but he wasn't paying any attention, he simply grabbed a handful of her salad leaves and tossed them aside, revealing the slices of pizza she had hidden underneath.

"MOM!" Lily cried, as the whole family began to giggle.

"What?" She asked, innocently, "there's nothing there!"

Ginny quickly piled the salad leaves back onto the plate, much to the amusement of everyone at the table.

Everyone except James that is. 

He was still glaring at Albus in a way a manner more suited to one's worst enemy than brother, and he'd still refused to speak to him.

Albus chose to ignore it. He was already dealing with enough emotions without adding a sibling rivalry to the mix. Besides, James would probably be back to normal in a few days, and even if he wasn't, it wasn't like he could do any harm.

Unbeknown to Albus he was correct, James would be back to normal in a few days. Unfortunately, he wasn't aware, nor was he prepared for, the damage his brother was going to cause in the meantime.


	8. Chapter 8

Scorpius had always been an early-riser, but he had planned to wake extra early on Wednesday morning. For some reason though, he had slept through his alarm and by the time his father had come to his room to wake him up it was already gone 11.

"Scorpius," Draco called as he poked his head through his son's bedroom door, "Scorpius, it's time to get up. The Potters will be waiting for us."

Normally, he would have sent a house elf to wake up his son, but he knew how important today was for Scorpius. It was important for Draco too, now he thought about it. For the first time in his 15 years of life his son was going to the house of a friend. It is everything Draco had ever wanted for his heir, in fact, it was everything he had ever wanted for himself as a child.

He had to admit, though, that he wasn't convinced that his own presence was entirely necessary. The Potters had sent an owl inviting Draco for coffee, apparently they were all going to some book shop with WiFi, whatever that was. The plan was for father and son to meet them there, take a beverage and then leave the boys to do whatever they saw fit for the rest of the day.

Despite his uncertainties, Draco had accepted the offer. All that was left to do now was drag his usually punctual son out of bed, something which had never been a problem in the past.

"Scorpius!" He called, louder this time.

"Yuh?" The boy replied, groggily.

"I said it's time to get up. The Potters will be waiting for us!"

Scorpius rolled over and took a glance at the ancient grandfather clock that stood in the corner of his bedroom. He'd expected to find it was still the middle of the morning, after all, he'd set his alarm for 8. When he saw it was actually closer to midday, he began to fret.

"Father!" He cried as he jumped out of bed, "why didn't you wake me sooner?"

He tried to pull his clothes on at record speed, but ended up with both feet stuck down the same leg of his muggle-appropriate jeans, and he out his t-shirt on backwards.

"I assumed you would have set an alarm," his father commented, only slightly annoyed by his son's lack of grace.

"I did set an alarm. I set three." Scorpius replied through gritted teeth as he finally forced his t-shirt the right way round. "They didn't go off though. That stupid old clock is useless. This wouldn't have happened if we had Wi-Fi..."

"Scorpius do calm down, we have a good hour to spare before we need to be there." Seeing that his son was now fully-dressed Draco saw it fit to enter his room completely. 

"Father!" he exclaimed, rather abruptly. "What are you wearing?"

A look of pure horror spread across Scorpius's face as he starred at the leather jacket, Levi jeans and black boots that his father was dressed in. 

"They're my muggle clothes," Draco answered, "I assumed you'd seen them before, I only have one set after all-"

"Father, you can't wear that..." Scorpius interrupted.

"Why not? I think they're quite cool." Draco admired himself in his son's full-length mirror.

"They are cool," he answered, "that's the problem - you're not meant to look cool, you're meant to look... well..."

He trailed off.

"I'm meant to look what, Scorpius?"

"Well, you know..." He pulled a this-is-so-obvious-it-shouldn't-need-explaining face, "forty."

Scorpius gave his father a somewhat apologetic look, but the horror hadn't disappeared.

"Oh I see, and what would you have me wear?" He asked, a smirk forming on his chiselled face, "corduroy slacks and a warm scarf?"

"Well, no..."

"Perhaps a nice piece of metallic jewellery to go with my Zimmer frame, then?"

"Ha. Ha." Scorpius laughed drily, "I just think you've gone a little over the top. You're not used to being around muggles, I don't want you to do anything."

"Anything...?"

"Yeah, anything."

"Anything what, Scorpius?"

"Just anything. Like, at all."

Oh, I see. Draco thought, so I'll just sit in the corner behaving myself, then. 

Draco knew that he should have been cross, or at least a little annoyed with the child's remarks, but he found that in actual fact he was quite touched that Scorpius was worried about his middle-aged father embarrassing him in front of his friends. 

It was such a normal thing for a teenage boy to be concerned about, when Draco was his age he had been tasked with murdering Albus Dumbledore, perhaps the greatest wizard who ever lived. He was happy that Scorpius didn't have to go through that.

"I promise I won't do anything to embarrass you," he said to his son who was now trying to force the laces of a pair of baseball boots apart, "at least not on purpose, anyway. Now come on, let's have some breakfast before we set off, there's still enough time."

"I thought people who took breakfast after 10 were lazy?" Scorpius asked, raising an eyebrow in his father's direction.

"They are." Draco agreed, "but you didn't oversleep on purpose, and if you don't have something to eat I think the excitement might give you a turn. Come on."

Whilst his son ate, Draco checked the directions to the Potter's house. They'd agreed to meet at a bookstore in a town not too far from their village and, so as not to alert the muggles who lived there, Draco had agreed to travel by non-magical means.

As he starred at the map, though, he came to the realisation that there was no feasible way he could navigate the hundreds of tiny roads that separated their two families, and he settled on enchanting his motorcycle to follow the route instead.

As long the muggles don't know it's magic, it's fine. He told himself, and after ensuring that his son was sufficiently engulfed in a winter coat, two scarves, a woolly hat and the thickest gloves he'd been able to find in the muggle clothes shop, they set off.

\----

Albus glimpsed at his watch, only nine seconds had passed since he'd last looked at it.

"If you keep starring at that watch you're going to give it a complex," his father joked as he placed four cups of steaming hot chocolate on the huge table they'd managed to get.

"Dad! I thought we were going to wait for them to arrive before we got drinks!" Albus slumped back in his chair, distancing himself from the guilty beverages.

"They're not due for another twenty minutes and I'm bloody freezing," Harry answered, "besides, you can have another one when they get here."

"Ohh, white chocolate!" Lily squealed as she took a sip of her still far too hot drink.

"For goodness sake Harry, why have you bought her that? It's full of sugar," Ginny complained at her husband as she took a huge swig of her own hot chocolate, "ohhh, chocolate and mint!"

Albus smiled as his family began to bicker. Ever since he'd come home for Christmas the atmosphere between them had been lighthearted and full of love - they made jokes, they poked fun at each other and they laughed together about it afterwards. They were just like a normal family.

There was an exception, of course - James wasn't there. He'd chosen to stay at home and, when Albus had asked his mother why, she'd shrugged his absence off with a lie about him having lots of homework, before sharing a look of concern with her husband.

Albus wasn't worried about that now, though. All he could think about was Scorpius's imminent arrival. 

"When they get here can we get cake?" He asked.

"No." His mother said immediately.

"Yes." His father and Lily said at the same time.

When Draco and Scorpius finally did make an appearance Albus was surprised to see that they had rode in on what looked like a particularly expensive motorbike. Albus was caught off guard, to say the least, it was a very muggle thing to do.

"Hey, Scorp!" He tried to give his friend a welcoming hug as he entered the store but someone had wrapped him in far too many layers of coats and scarves for it to have its intended effect. "Nice bike!"

"Are you serious?" Scorpius pulled a face, "it's father's."

He sighed and his expression turned serious.

"I think he's going through a mid-life crisis."

Albus laughed, but the look on Scorpius's face told him he wasn't joking.

As far as Albus was concerned, Mr Malfoy looked perfectly presentable, and surprisingly normal - certainly not like someone who was going through a midlife crisis. His own father, on the other hand, seemed to be turning gradually into a senile geriatric. One day he would understand that every teenager thought this of their parents, and he'd realise that both Mr Malfoy, and Harry Potter, were perfectly respectable 40-something men.

Dracos's father joined Albus at the table whilst Harry and Scorpius went to order drinks (Scorpius had insisted on seeing an electronic milk frother first hand) and when they returned everyone, except Ginny, as pleased to see they had doughnuts.

"Albus, have you seen these?" Scorpius said excitedly as he held up a bright, blue, cookie monster-inspired doughnut. "We got you one the same."

He passed another to Albus.

"We got one for you too, Draco," Harry said with a smirk on his face, "I wasn't sure which one you'd go for but Scorpius assured me that this one would suit you just fine."

He handed a sugar-coated, jam-filled doughnut to Draco - it was clearly the messiest, and least elegant item to eat in the whole café.

"I take it you both found that very amusing?" Draco asked drily.

"Yes, yes we did!" Scorpius laughed.

Albus thought the joke was a little unnecessary, until Scorpius's father took his first bite that was-

The jam that had been injected into his doughnut squirted out of the end, not in the direction of Draco however, but across the table at Harry, who got a face full of deep red strawberry jam.

"Oh my!" Ginny gasped, placing her hand over her mouth to hide her laughter.

Albus wasn't so kind. He burst out laughing, making no effort to hide his giggles.

Within seconds everybody at the table was cackling away, trying their hardest not to choke on the coffee and doughnuts that they'd already began to eat.

"That serves you right, Potter!" Draco joked.

"It certainly does!" Ginny agreed.

The jokes continued as they finished their drinks, and Albus was pleased to see that the awkwardness between his parents and Scorpius's dad was all but gone since they'd travelled back in time together to rescue their children. Perhaps it was because through parenthood they had come to realise that there was more to life than grudges and petty squabbles, or maybe they'd just gotten old and realised they weren't cool enough anymore to make new friends. Albus thought it was probably the latter.

When they finally arrived at Albus's house, new books in hand, Draco left them, agreeing to collect his son after tea, and Albus and Scorpius had, on request of the latter, spent the afternoon flicking from one TV station to another, helping to load and unload the dishwasher, playing, pausing, rewinding and speeding up Lily's DVD collection and using Harry's key fob to repeatedly lock and unlock his car.

Under normal circumstances Albus would have found each and every one of these activities mundane, but doing them with Scorpius was like rediscovering modern, muggle technology for the first time.

He couldn't help but laugh along as his friend's face broke into a huge smile every time he successfully activated an electronic device, and he was quite certain that the sight of Scorpius trying to use the TV remote, or the muggle wand as he called it, would stay with him forever.

His favourite moment had been when, at about half past four, he'd found his best friend sitting cross-legged in front of the washing machine.

"Scorp, what are you doing?" He asked.

"Honestly, Albus, I don't think I can give you a simple answer to that question. I'm doing various things at the moment, all of them mental." Had been Scorpius's obscure answer.

"I think you are mental," Albus laughed, "I was in the bathroom for like 2 seconds and you've gone and been hypnotised by the washer."

"I think it's quite marvellous, actually" Scorpius answered, ignoring Albus's suggestion that he may not be as entirely sane as he thought he was, "do you see those little holes? It shoots warm, soapy water out of them, and rotates to emulate a washboard that's been enchanted by a possing charm. Then it rinses them with clean water, and spins really, really fast so that they come out already half-dried and you don't have to levitate them through a mangle. Isn't that just fantastic?"

Scorpius shot Albus a huge smile, and Albus burst out laughing.

"You're crazy," he giggled.

When it finally came time for Scorpius to leave Albus had handed him a Christmas present and given him a hug (which was considerably better than the first one he'd given him that day) and promised to send him photocopies of the instruction manuals for each and every piece of muggle technology he had in his house, and when he woke up the next morning he was still wearing the same smile he'd been wearing when he'd gotten into bed the night before. 

It was nothing more than the result of a happy day spent with his best friend, though. Or at least that's what he told himself.

It wasn't destined to last long, though.

At 9 A.M he swung his feet out of bed an into his slippers, before making his way to the kitchen. 

He'd originally intended to make toast, but what he really wanted was a coffee. He'd never appreciated the taste before, but as he edged ever closer to adulthood he was beginning to appreciate it's energising effects. Either that, or the fact Scorpius was so obsessed with Starbuck's was rubbing off on him. Again, he thought it was probably the latter.

When he got to the kitchen, however, he discovered that it wasn't to be, as standing between him and the kettle was James - and his expression couldn't have been further from Albus's smitten smile.

"Mornin'." Albus muttered, hoping that he could have a normal conversation with his brother.

He didn't get a response.

"I said good morning," Albus repeated.

This time he did get a response, and it was far more than he'd bargained for.


	9. Chapter 9

"I know what you said, Al, and I chose to ignore it. Is that OK with you?" James's voice was full of sarcasm.

"Not really, no." Albus answered, anger rising in his stomach. Why was James being so unfairly cruel to him?

"Yeah, well that is what you'd say isn't it? You self-righteous son-of-a-bitch."

James threw the half eaten slice of toast he was holding into the sink and made for the door, but as he reached it he stopped and turned around. He'd clearly decided that he hadn't said his piece.

"It always has to be about you, doesn't it Al?", he started to cross the room slowly, closing in on Albus as he mocked him.

"Poor Albus, he has't got any friends. Poor Albus, he's been sorted into Slytherin. Poor Albus, he thinks his daddy doesn't love him enough. It's always about you, isn't it?"

"Albus this, Albus that, Albus, Albus, Albus." James was growing angrier.

"What the hell's wrong with you, James?" Albus shouted.

"With me?" James seemed genuinely surprised by the question, "there's nothing wrong with me, the problem is you!"

"You're insane," Albus rolled his eyes and turned away. He had enough of this crap from people like Polly Chapman, he wasn't going to take it from his own brother, in his own home. James was being childish, he clearly had a chip on his shoulder and he was taking it out on Albus.

"You know sometimes I think you like it." James continued, his voice full of sadism, "I think you do it on purpose, you know. I bet you asked the sorting hat to put you in Slytherin, didn't you?"

"No!" James turned back around, facing his brother now. "I asked it just the opposite!"

"Yeah? And what about your little trip back in time, eh? I bet you only did that so daddy would come and save you. Is that right, Al? Is that what you did? Were you craving the attention?"

"No, James! You're talking rubbish!"

"I bet you thought 'oh look, daddy's got his attention on something else, better destroy the world so he notices me again!" James was getting closer and closer, and Albus could feel the anger radiating off him. "Do you know what happened yesterday? Yesterday I needed him, his other son needed him, and do you know what he did, Al?"

Albus didn't speak. He made himself believe it was because he was the bigger man.

"Do you know what he did?" James's voice had turned into a growl, now, and he'd gotten so close to Albus that they were face to face. "Answer me."

"No." Albus whispered.

"He told me it would have to wait." Albus was starring into his brother's eyes. Partly because he wanted to see a glimpse of the happy, caring person he knew James was, but partly because he was too terrified to look away.

"He told me it would have to wait because little Al's friend was coming over." James placed his hands on the wall either side of Albus, trapping him in.

"I wish you'd just tell me what was wrong," Albus said, for loss of a better retaliation. There was no hiding the fear in his voice.

"Oh do you? Is that what you wish, bro?" James asked as a nasty scowl formed on his face, "Do you know what I wish, Al? I wish it were you,"

Albus remained frozen on the spot, he couldn't speak.

"I wish Teddy were still here, and you were dead."

As soon as he said it he broke eye contact. He didn't want to see the hurt in his brother's eyes, but he wanted even less to see his own face reflected back at him, he didn't think he could stand it.

"What?" Albus mumbled, tears beginning to burn in his eyes, "why would you say that?"

He didn't get an answer. 

Albus tried to read James's expression. The hatred had gone but it had been replaced by something else, something unreadable.

"James?"

His brother stormed out of the room. He heard his footsteps as he climbed the stairs, and a second later he was left in silence.

What just happened? Albus asked himself, beginning to shake.

He forced himself to move, biting his thumb nail so as to stop himself from breaking down as he made his way to the living room. There was nobody there, but he could see his father was sat at the dining room table reading the newspaper.

He headed towards him and took the seat at his side.

"You're up early." His dad remarked without taking his eyes off The Daily Prophet.

"Yeah." He mumbled back.

"How are you?"

"Fine." He whispered. 

For a moment he just sat there. 

Just being next to someone was all the comfort he thought he needed, but as soon as he started replaying what had just happened to him in his head, tears began to roll down his cheeks.

Albus tried to stop himself, he didn't want his father to see him cry, he wanted to be strong. 

He didn't mean it, he told himself, he was just in a bad mood - he thought of the worst thing he could say and said it.

He realised, soon, that lying to himself was useless.

He took hold of his father's arm and hugged it as tightly as he could, letting his inner-child take over and hoping that the human contact would be enough to calm him, but before he knew it he was audibly sobbing into the sleeve of Harry's shirt.

"Al?" Harry asked, his voice full of concern, "Al, what's wrong?"

He dropped his newspaper and wrapped his youngest son in an embrace.

Albus didn't answer, at first. He didn't want to admit to his father that he was crying over something as childish as an argument with his brother.

He soon realised, however, that there was no way Harry was going to let him go until he found out what had gotten him into such a state.

"Al, tell me what's the matter." 

"It's nothing," Albus told him, "I'm just being stupid."

"It clearly isn't nothing, Al, you can tell me."

Albus wiped his eyes as he pulled himself away, his father left his arm wrapped firmly around his shoulder though, something he was grateful for.

"I had a fight with James..." he whispered.

"Ah." His father's expression was one of knowing.

"I told it you was stupid." Albus was half expecting Harry to laugh, or even get cross with his son for wasting his time over something so trivial.

"Look," his father began, using his free hand to wipe the fresh tears from his son's face, "whatever's happened, just know it isn't anything to do with you, James is just angry, it wasn't your fault."

This remark confused Albus. How could his dad possibly know that is wasn't he who had started the fight? After all, it wouldn't be the first time he'd antagonised James and ended up in tears.

"James is going through some stuff," Harry continued, "he's been off with all of us, lately. I promise you it's nothing personal."

It certainly was personal, Albus thought, and he didn't like that something was evidently being kept from him, yet again.

"What stuff?" He asked, knowing that he wouldn't get a straight answer.

"Nothing for you to worry about."

Wrong answer.

"Is it about Teddy?" Albus knew he shouldn't have asked the question, it was a cruel trick - they never spoke about Teddy Lupin in the Potter household, at least not since he'd died eleven years prior.

The change he felt in his father's mood told him he'd hit the nail on the head.

"What makes you ask that?" Harry questioned.

"Just something James said," he didn't want to reveal his brother's actual words, mainly because repeating them would hurt too much, "he just mentioned him."

Harry took off his glasses and let out a long sigh.

"You know, I wanted to keep this between James, your mother and I. We didn't want you or Lily finding out." Harry began explaining, "but I have a feeling that you aren't going to agree with that, even if I tell you it's because we want to protect you, are you?"

"No." Albus shook his head. He was sick his family's secrets, and if he wasn't already so emotionally drained he'd be angry that he'd just discovered there was yet another one.

"That's what I thought." His father replaced his glasses, but he didn't look at Albus, he simply starred through the window at nothing in particular, "Al, do you remember Teddy?"

"Yeah," Albus replied, "kind of."

Albus had only been four when Teddy died, but the only memories he had of his adopted brother were of his parents going to visit him in hospital every evening. They'd only ever taken him on special ocasions, like his birthday and at Christmas, but they took James nearly every day.

"He was such a lovely boy," Harry began to reminisce, "he was so sweet, and so full of energy. He was cheeky too, mind, just like James. We always said that he and Teddy were going to be like your uncles Fred and George were at school, if not worse."

"He spent the first two years of his life going from family to family. Sometimes nan and grandpa Weasley looked after him, sometimes his grandparents, other times me and your mom had him, until eventually we decided he needed some stability. We took him in permanently, as you know, and we raised him as our own child."

"When James was born we just told them both that they were brothers. Teddy was too young to realise that wasn't the case and we brought James up to know nothing different. We were going to tell them the truth eventually, of course, but we never got the chance."

Albus could sense that this was a painful story for his father to tell, and although he didn't want to see him suffer, he was too intrigued to tell him to stop.

"What about when I as born?" Albus asked, "I hardly ever got to see him."

"When you were a baby you saw a lot of him," Harry corrected, "he was still living at home then, but I doubt you can remember any of that - you were too young. You'd only just turned three when Teddy was admitted to St Mungo's for the first time."

"Because of the cancer," Albus nodded, he'd heard this part of the story before.

Harry paused for a moment.

"Al," he said after a moment, this time he did look his son in the eye, "with magic, we can cure cancer."

"I know but-" it took a moment for Albus to realise what he'd just heard. He did know that magic could cure cancer, he'd known for years, yet he'd never before questioned the lie he'd been told all his life.

"Do you know what lycanthropy is, Al?"

Of course he did. He'd seen the posters promoting equality in the Daily Prophet and heard the information bulletins on the radio. They'd even had a talk about it at school, about how, despite what people may say, suffering from such an affliction didn't make a person any less human - or any more dangerous to be around in normal day-to-day life.

"It's when you're a werewolf," Albus answered, unsure of whether or not he wanted to know where the story was going.

"For many years it was thought that the only way to contract lycanthropy was through being bitten by a werewolf at the full moon. According to the doctors at St Mungo's, it was nonheritable." Harry let out another deep sigh, "it turned out they were wrong."

"So... Teddy was a werewolf?" Albus asked, somewhat dubious of his father's claim.

"He only transformed once," Harry answered, as if in some way that contradicted what Albus had just, very rightly, stated, "they tried to control it but it was too much for his little body to take. They'd never had to deal with anything like that before."

"So," Albus asked, "he died because of that? Not because he had cancer?"

"Yes." Harry answered, simply.

"So that was a lie?"

"It was not a lie, Albus," his father's tone was serious, "it was a way of telling a four year old boy that his brother had passed away whilst still protecting him from the, quite frankly, horrifying truth."

Albus nodded.

"I will not apologise for that, Albus."

"I know, I understand." He answered, and he did, but he still had questions, "I don't understand what this has to do with James, dad. Are you saying he's been acting weird because Teddy died? Just because he misses him, or something?"

"No," his father admitted, "I wish it were as simple as that. I really do."

Albus gave his father a moment.

"You know that your mom and I deal with all your personal documents, birth certificate, medical records, muggle passports, Hogwart's enrolments, things like that, right?"

"Yeah," Albus thought this was irrelevant, but he allowed his father to continue at his own pace.

"Well when you turn 17 all of those things need to be reviewed and signed by you, just like James did this year." Harry took a breath, he replaced the arm that he'd previously removed from Albus's shoulders, "well when you come of age, if you're registered at St Mungo's, you also have to sign some waivers, for insurance purposes, things like that."

Albus nodded again, he wanted his father to get to the point.

"One of them is a document that you have to sign if you've been the victim of a werewolf attack, stating that you are aware of the consequences that such a thing could have."

Albus's heart skipped a beat.

"James had to sign one of those." Harry finished.

Albus pulled himself away from his father and out of his grasp.

Did his dad just say what he thought he'd said?

It was impossible, he must have misunderstood.

"Dad... you aren't saying that Teddy attacked James?" he asked, praying that the answer would be a resounding no.

Harry closed his eyes tightly as he nodded.

"So James... James is awerewolf?"

"No." Harry shook his head this time, "he didn't bite him. If he had have he wouldn't have survived. Not at that age."

"So he just attacked him?" Albus asked, a little calmer now, "James is OK?"

"He just got a little beat up. Scratches, bruises. Nothing more." Harry conceded, "your brother didn't know about any of this. We thought it was best not to tell him, and we just hoped he wouldn't have any recollection of it. We were right."

"But he found out this year, when he signed the forms." Albus concluded the story for his father.

"Exactly."

Albus sat back down and allowed Harry to put his arm around him once again.

"Is that why James is so mad? Because he found out Teddy attacked him and you kept it from him?" He asked, beginning to understand.

"It is."

"But- But he didn't do it on purpose, surely James must know that?"

"He does, son."

"And he didn't kill him, he didn't even bite him, so is it really that bad?" Albus had the feeling he was speaking out of turn, but he continued anyway, "is it really so bad that he's been in a bad mood about it for months?"

"No, Al, I'm afraid that's not the whole story." His dad wrapped his free arm around Albus, engulfing him entirely, and whispered solemnly, "the problem, Al... the truly dreadful problem... is that James wasn't alone, and the other girl wasn't as lucky."


	10. Chapter 10

Albus wasn't quite sure he wanted to believe what he'd just heard.

"What do you mean, she wasn't so lucky?" He whispered into his dad's shoulder, knowing he wouldn't like the answer, whatever it was.

"She didn't survive the attack." There seemed to be no emotion in Harry's voice as he told the story, just emptiness.

"Who was she?"

"The neighbour's daughter, Louise. They were muggles."

Albus fought not to let out a gasp.

"It's so rare that a muggle survives a werewolf attack, and at that age it was next to impossible. When your mother and I got there she was still alive, but only just. There was nothing we could do."

"And James?" Albus muttered.

"He was all but unconscious, it wasn't... nice, Al." Albus felt his father's chin ruffle his hair as he shook his head, "your mother and I kept it from you for a reason. You don't want to know the details, I promise you."

Albus understood his parents' intentions, but he did want to know the details. Surly after everything they'd been through his father had realised that keeping secrets from Albus would always result in him getting more distant, and pushing himself away.

"How old was she?" Albus asked, "Louise, I mean."

"She was five," there was sadness in Harry's voice, now, "the same age as James."

"What happened to her family?"

"The Ministry wiped their memories." Harry sighed.

This stung Albus. It made him sick to think that an innocent girl had been killed, and even more so to know that all memory of her existence had been wiped from the face of the Earth.

"Albus I hope you can understand that what happened that night, it was nothing more than a terrible tragedy. There really is no-one to blame, there's no guilty party." Harry broke the hug and looked Albus in the eyes, "I think that's what your brother is finding most difficult. He has nobody to take out his anger on."

Albus nodded. He could accept that James had been going through a hard time, but what he didn't understand was why he'd directed all his cruelty at him, and only him. Still, he had enough sense to know that now wasn't the time to push the subject.

"Thanks for telling me," he said to his father with a small smile.

Harry returned the smile and squeezed his son's arm.

They sat together for a few minutes, the only sound coming from the winter rain as it bounced of the windows of the Potters' detached house.

"Hey..." They were interrupted by James's appearance, he was holding a steaming mug in each hand.

"Tea," he muttered, "a peace offering."

He placed the two drinks on the table and shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. It didn't take Harry long to notice that there were only two cups. He stood up.

"I'll leave you boys to it, I fancy a bite to eat" he offered, collecting his newspaper as he headed out of the dining room. The Potters' kitchen was on the opposite side of the house, but even so, James closed the door behind his father - what they needed here was privacy.

Albus eyed his brother cautiously. The anger that had been there less than twenty minutes ago had vanished, but he still wasn't back to the James of old. He could sense his discomfort.

"Can we talk?" The older brother asked.

"You have until I finish this to convince me you're not a total dickhead," Albus threatened, motioning to one of the mugs of tea as he said it.

James gave a nod.

"Can I sit down?" he asked.

Albus shrugged, and within seconds his elder brother was slumped by his side.

"Look - Al... I'm really, really sorry about what I said." He sighed.

"Not good enough." Was Albus's response.

"I know."

And there was silence.

"You're not trying very hard," Albus warned as he took the first sip of his drink.

"I don't know what to say." James admitted, and he took a gulp of his own tea, "I see dad's told you about Teddy."

Albus nodded.

"He told me enough," he answered.

"I didn't know anything about it until a few months ago."

"Yeah, when you turned 17, Dad said."

"Yeah..."

"So was that when you decided you'd rather it were me who was dead?" Albus asked bluntly, "or did you already know that?"

"No!" James's expression was a mix of outrage and guilt, "I didn't mean what I said this morning, Al, I swear."

"If you say so." Albus knew that James was telling the truth, but he was going to have to try harder than that if he wanted his forgiveness.

"I do, Al. It's the truth."

"I get it, you know," Albus began, "you found out your dead brother was a werewolf who killed a girl and nearly killed you - I understand why you're angry. But what I don't get is how you go from being pissed off about that to spending months treating me like dirt, and telling me you wished I were dead."

There was another awkward silence, and when James finally broke it his voice was trembling slightly.

"It's not that simple, bro..."

"Then tell me why," Albus demanded.

"It's just... there's more to it."

James looked more uncomfortable that Albus had ever seen him.

"Do you know what Professor Dabbs told us last term? That only people with a pure, human soul can move on when they die. They say that some souls are eternally dammed, and that they get stuck in limbo for eternity." James was starring at the half empty mug in his lap, "like centaurs, merpeople... and werewolves."

Oh. Albus hadn't expected that. He'd assumed James was sad because of Teddy's death. It hadn't occured to him that he might be concerned about what came after that.

"I don't think it works like that James," he said, and he realised that, although he hadn't meant it to, to his tone has softened, "that only goes for people who've destroyed their soul intentionally. Like murderers and people who, you know, make horcruxes and stuff..."

They both knew who he was referring to, and the comparison wasn't comforting for James. Albus himself realised that he'd been a little tactless, and chose to say no more.

"There's a book, by Emerett Picardy, " James continued, "and it says the same thing. 'A werewolf's soul is dammed for eternity'."

"Yeah, but James-"

"Do you know what the book's called?" James interrupted, before answering his own question, "Lupine Lawlessness: Why Lycanthropes Don't Deserve to Live."

James was starring at the ceiling now, his face full of anguish.

"That book sounds like it's full of shit." Albus scoffed, "you know dad always says that the Ministry doesn't understand death, nor time, not really. They know more than the muggles, but that's not saying much. The only real evidence that they have of limbo even existing is from what dad told them he'd experienced after Voldemort tried to kill him, and he even said he could've been imagining that..."

James made to open his mouth, but Albus hadn't finished. He was on a roll, but he wasn't sure who he was trying to convince now - James, or himself.

"Annnnnd, dad said he saw Teddy's real dad with that stone thing he's always banging on about-"

"The Resurrection stone," James filled in the gap. They'd both heard the story a thousand times.

"Exactly. If werewolves couldn't pass on then how could he have been there?" Albus was quite impressed with his reasoning. It seemed flawless, but he still had more, he was beginning to feel a little philosophical, "you know sometimes I think the muggles might be right."

"What do you mean?" Suddenly James seemed more interested in listening than speaking.

"You know, that stuff they say about God, and heaven and hell. I'm not saying that there's some great wizard living in the clouds who decides who goes to the good place and who goes to the bad place, but maybe it really is based on the good that's inside a person. Maybe that's what decides who moves on to the after life or not."

James nodded.

"That would explain why Teddy's dad was able to but Voldemort wasn't, right?" Albus asked.

"I guess..."

"Exactly. So stop worrying about that, James. I promise you Teddy's in the afterlife with his mom and dad and..." he stopped for a moment, feeling a little awkward as he realised James had completely driven the conversation away from his original question. "It still doesn't explain why your problem was just with me, though, James."

Albus fixed an expectant glare on his brother. He'd seen Rose do it many times, and it always seemed to work for her.

His brother let out a long sigh and pulled his knees up to his chest. Albus was sure he felt him lean every-so-slightly towards him, as if he wanted them to be closer, but he wasn't sure.

"I think you're right," he said plainly.

"What?"

"I think you're right about good people moving on and bad people getting stuck in limbo. Like the muggles say... actually dad had already told me that. That's not why I was angry with you," James paused for a moment before continuing, he was choosing his words carefully, "you know what else the muggles say, right?"

Albus shook his head. The muggles said lots of things, the great majority of which were completely irrelevant at that particular moment in time.

"They have their own ideas about who has a soul and who doesn't, about who goes to heaven and who is dammed for eternity."

"Yeah, so...?"

"They say witches go to hell, and atheists. Thieves and whores too."

"And?"

"And you know, they say... well they say gay people are sinners," James whispered, "so I guess they think they go to hell."

Albus froze. Literally. He felt like his entire body had been plunged into ice cold water, but the sensation came from the inside out.

"That's why I was weird with you," James admitted in a voice that was little more than a whisper, "I thought Teddy's sole was dammed for eternity, and I didn't want that happening to two of the people I love."

"That's ridiculous," Albus replied, trying to keep his voice as calm and matter-of-fact as it had been when he was ridiculing the same claims made by wizard-kind against werewolves, "and irrelevant."

"It is ridiculous," James agreed, "I realise that now. But I'm not sure it's irrelevant."

Albus didn't know what to say, and so he took a final, long sip of his tea before continuing.

"I don't even know any gay people, so I don't see why that made you angry at me." He was, obviously, lying, and James could see straight through it, "there's no reason that a crazy, muggle theory about people going to hell should have anything to do with me, whatsoever."

"OK..." James said, unsure of whether or not to push the matter.

"If this is because of what you heard Potty Chapstick saying about me then, well, you can just forget it. I am not seeing Scorpius, James, I promise." Regardless of his feelings for Scorpius, he was telling the truth now. They were not together, and they never would be. James, however, must have noticed the change in Albus's voice. Because now he seemed to believe what he was saying.

"Right," he nodded, "but not seeing Scorpius and not being gay are two different things."

He gave his brother a sideways glance, but it wasn't returned.

"Al, if you're gay you can just tell me," he finally said, shrugging his arms in an exaggerated way as he did so, "I promise I won't kick off again."

Albus didn't speak. He just starred at his empty cup.

"Al?" James nudged him, "Al come on, speak to me. You know there's nothing wrong with being gay, loads of people are gay. Look at Dumbledore! Some people say he was ga-"

"Do you wanna stop saying gay, James?" Albus snapped, "you've said it about ten times in the last thirty seconds!"

"Because it's normal! I realise that now," his brother answered, "there's nothing wrong with saying it."

Albus could feel the same old anger building inside him once again, only this time it was stronger. Why did James have do butt in? What gave him the right to interrogate Albus like this mere seconds after he'd forgiven him for wishing him dead.

He's looking out for you, a voice in the back of his mind whispered.

He's looking for an easy excuse for what he said to me this morning, more like, Albus replied, mentally.

It would be nice to have someone to talk to, though, wouldn't it? The voice again.

Yes. Was Albus's only answer.

Then, as he felt more tears welling in his eyes, he chastised himself for crying again.

"Al," James leaned his arm on his brother's shoulder as he noticed the tears, "I know you're gay. There's no point lying. If you keep trying to keep a secret that everyone already knows then eventually it'll begin to eat you up, you'll end up self-destructing. You know that, right?"

"Wh-What do you mean everyone?" Albus stuttered, panic in eyes.

"No, no, not literally everyone. I just meant in general. I haven't told anyone, I just kept it to myself." James reassured him, "and I won't tell anyone, of course not."

Albus nodded.

"So... does that mean...?" James's words hung in the air, he was waiting for Albus to finish them, or at least nod.

Albus shook his head.

"Al." James pushed.

Still nothing.

Then, after a second of deliberation, he nodded.

"Ok." James nodded too, "that's cool."

Albus tried to wipe away the tears that were rolling down his cheeks. He wasn't sobbing, he was't even really sad, embarrassed yes, but not sad. He couldn't honestly ascertain where the tears were coming from.

"Are you sure you don't want to, you know, actually say it out loud?" James asked, "I think it would make you feel better."

Albus shook his head again. Had James not already done enough? Telling him he wished he were dead and then practically forcing him to admit that he was gay?

"Just leave it. Please." Albus answered.

"OK. But just to confirm-" James began again.

For God's sake, Albus cursed to himself.

"Yes James! I'm gay! OK?" He shouted, anger, fear, shame and hatred all running through him at the same time.

As soon he did it he realised what he'd done. The whole house must have heard him. Within seconds his father would be in the room wanting to know why he'd just heard his always-disappointing son screaming his perversions to the world.

He imagined the look on his face. This would surely be too much for him to take.

"Shit." Albus muttered as he put his head in his hands, "Shit. Shit. Shit."

What was he going to do now? If his dad found out then his mother would too, and they were bound to tell Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron. If word got to Rose then the whole of Gryffindor house would know, and then it would only be a matter of time before the news got back to Scorpius.

He considered running away. He still had the trace on him, but he was well-accustomed to the muggle world. He could definitely make it on his own without magic, at least for the next two years-

"Umm, Al.." James interrupted, a sly smile forming on his lips.

Albus didn't look at his brother, he'd almost forgotten he was there.

"I may have put a silencing charm on the door." His smile grew.

"You did what?" Albus's head shot up.

"I put a silencing charm on the door," he replied simply, "I had a feeling this was gonna get deep, so I thought it was better to be safe than sorry."

Albus nodded weakly as relief spread through him.

"To tell you the truth I thought I might have to viciously murder you," James smirked and winked at Albus, he was clearly back to his normal self, "I thought I'd have more time to hide the body if mom and dad didn't hear the screams."

Albus gave a small smile, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"But seriously, I have no problem with you being gay, and I don't think dad will either."

"Right."

Albus said nothing more. He didn't want his dad to know, why, he didn't even want James to know but he'd been left with little choice. He simply sat back in the sofa and breathed slowly.

"I suppose this means I'm gonna have to hug you." James asked with mock trepidation in his voice.

"There's really no need." Albus replied.

James hugged him anyway, and Albus didn't reject it.

OK, Albus thought to himself, maybe this isn't so bad after all. I'm gay. James knows I'm gay. It's no big deal.

But despite what he told himself, all he could think of was Scorpius.

Scorpius and how he was going to hate him when he found out about this.

He sighed into James's shoulder as yet more tears threatened to escape him.

"By the way," James began, "Merry Christmas."

"Yeah, Merry Christmas." Albus replied.


	11. Chapter 11

The grounds of Malfoy Manor were alive with the chitter-chatter of merry celebration as friends and relatives of the Malfoys gathered to celebrate Christmas. 

Trees twinkled prettily as tiny blue pixies fluttered amongst their branches, and the snow covered ground glistened ghostly white. 

The atmosphere was one of happiness and joy, and this was only added to by the gentle playing of cheery, Christmas songs that were being carried magically through the crisp, winter air.

Most, if not all, of the adults were sipping ever-bubbly champagne from crystal flutes, and although his father had offered him a glass Scorpius had preferred a steaming cup of hot cocoa, albeit with a drop of amaretto liquer, and topped with freshly whipped cream and marshmallows. Naturally.

The cocoa had been a gift from Albus. Ever since he had introduced Scorpius to instant hot chocolate in the Beauxbatons' common room he had been obsessed with the stuff. If it wasn't for Albus's magical, chocolatey, muggle-made powder there was no way he would have been drinking it right now, for it was far beyond any Malfoy adult to successfully brew cocoa without the aid of a house-elf, and they were all on annual leave. 

Scorpius felt a smile creep across his lips as he thought of the manor's army of house-elves. It had been so difficult to convince them that they were deserving of a salary, and even more so to convince them to take a three day break during the festive period. Scorpius considered his father's decision to pay their house-elves as a turning point for the Malfoy family, somewhat of a changing of the guard from his grandfather Lucius's old-fashioned views of blood-purity and supremacy, to his father's softer, more accepting nature. 

The house-elves hadn't gone quietly, of course. They had insisted on leaving a gift for the family, something which Scorpius hadn't wanted to accept at first, but now, as he admired it, he couldn't help but be grateful. 

The previous night they had congregated in the garden to perform a magical act far outside the reach of wizards and witches. Through the use of house-elf magic they had covered, brick by brick, the entire façade of Malfoy Manor in glistening, silver-blue jewels, each one twinkling beautifully like a muggle fairy light, only much more elegant and far less tacky.

The Malfoys had been entirely unaware of the house-elves' ability to create such gems and, frankly, they would never have known about this skill had they not granted their old servants the freedom they deserved. The gems wouldn't last forever, of course - just like leprechaun gold they would eventually fade and vanish. For the time being, Scorpius thought they made the manor look glorious.

It was already 4pm and the sun was edging ever-so-slowly towards the horizon when Scorpius's father approached him, a far-too-rare smile on his lips.

"So," he asked as he placed his arm around his son's shoulders, "what do you think of this year's luncheon?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. His father insisted on calling his Christmas parties 'festive luncheons', but everybody knew there were just an excuse for mid-day drinking and gossip gathering amongst the adults.

"It's fantastic," Scorpius replied, "the grounds are really beautiful."

Draco smiled proudly. Christmas at Malfoy Manor had always been a dull, formal occasion when Scorpius's grandfather was calling the shots, but since the passing of Scorpius's mother Draco had made every possible effort to make the day a joyous one for his only son.

"I'm tremendously pleased with the turn out," Draco continued in the exaggeratedly posh accent Scorpius had inherited from him, "we've received far more guests than last year, and there are still some to come."

"Great," Scorpius enthused, feigning interest. Honestly, he knew very few of the people who were there already, and he wasn't all that bothered about meeting any more.

"Yes, the Potters," Draco added with feigned nonchalance, "I imagine they'll be arriving any time now, actually."

It took a moment for Scorpius's mind to process what he had just heard. The Potters? The Potters! That meant...

"Albus?" Scorpius asked a little more enthusiastically than he would have liked.

"Yes," Draco nodded, "his parents too, and his brother and sister. Although I imagine you'll be most interested in Albus."

Under normal circumstances Scorpius would have questioned his father's emphasis on Albus, and would probably have feigned mock dis-interest in order to knock any potential misunderstandings on the head, but in that moment he was too happy to do anything other than smile, hug his father in thanks for inviting the Potters, and run into the Manor to find the present he'd been planning on sending by owl that very evening. 

The gift, which had been wrapped and waiting for days, was in his bedroom, which was located in the furthest wing of the manor. He began to bound down the central corridor, ignoring the roaring, regal fireplaces as he went. It was for that reason that he didn't realist the flames in one of them turn a deep, emerald green, and it was only when a figure stepped out of the fire that Scorpius realised it was too late to stop, and he crashed into it, bringing James Potter to the ground with a thud.

"Merlin's beard!" The older Potter boy cried as Scorpius untangled himself and stood up.

"Sorry..." he muttered.

A second round of green flames announced the arrival of Albus.

"Scorp!" He shouted, wrapping his arms around his very embarrassed, and now bright red, best friend. He looked over Scorpius's shoulder at his brother, "why are you on the floor, James?"

"Well, -" he began, but he didn't get the chance to finish.

"Hi!" Scorpius cried back, a huge smile forming on his face.

"This place is amazing!" Albus continued, his focus entirely on Scorpius and his house, "it reminds me of Hogwarts."

"What? Noo..." Scorpius shifted, a little shyly now, "it's nowhere near as cool as Hogwarts."

"No, it's really not," Jamed added, although no-one was listening to him.

"Can I see your room?" Albus asked, full of enthusiasm.

"Yeah, I guess..." Scorpius didn't know why, but he felt shy in Albus's presence. It had been less than a week since they'd last been together, yet now he felt strange - unprepared perhaps. He hadn't had time to conduct himself before his best friend's arrival, and he'd realised a long time ago that whenever he was around Albus he definitely needed time to prepare himself.

Regardless of his unusual feelings, Scorpius obliged. He led his friend towards his room, at a pace far slower than the one he had previously been taking. Thoughts of having Albus alone in his room were beginning to form in Scorpius's mind. Was it such a good idea for them to go there alone?

As they approached his bedroom Scorpius noticed that Albus was beaming at him. The type of smile that made his eyes crinkle (and Scorpius's stomach flutter). Was he aware of the effect he was having on his friend? Definitely not, Scorpius decided, if he were aware he wouldn't be here.

"Here it is," Scorpius announced as he opened his bedroom door. He was beginning to think that the almond liquer hadn't been a good idea. Scorpius had never drank alcohol in any considerable quantity, and the relatively small amount he'd added to his cocoa was having more of an effect than he would have liked.

As Albus entered the room he was taken aback by the size of it.

"Jesus," he gasped as he glanced around.

"What's a Jesus?" Scorpius asked, shuffling to his friend's side.

"A muggle thing," Albus replied, shaking his head, "is this really your room? It's bigger than the whole Slytherin dorm."

"Hm, yeah..." Scorpius mumbled, a little embarrassed. Here he was, worrying about what taking Albus Potter to his bedroom whilst under the influence of alcohol could lead to, and all the other boy was interested in was the square-footage.

"It's nice." Albus lied after a few moments of silence.

"It's not." Scorpius replied, "it's cold, dull and grey. Just like the rest of the house."

Albus tried to hide the look of agreement on his face, but he couldn't. Scorpius was right, the room was indeed cold, dull and grey, but the rest of the house was far from it. From what Albus had seen, Malfoy Manor was alive with the spirit of Christmas. The only room that didn't seem that way was Scorpius's.

"Scorp," he began, turning to face his friend, "why don't you have any decorations in here? I thought you loved Christmas? In fact, why don't you have anything in here?"

Albus looked around. There were no posters on the walls, no photos in frames on the dressing table, no Slytherin scarves hanging over the backs of chairs. The room was entirely lacking in personality. Something which Scorpius had in heaps.

"Why would I decorate my bedroom?" Scorpius asked confused, "I only sleep here. I spend the rest of my time in the study, the library, the living room or the fire room."

Albus laughed.

"What?" Scorpius asked, a little annoyed.

"You're so posh," Albus giggled, and if it weren't for the cuteness Scorpius would have accused him of making fun of him, "so you literally just sleep in here?"

Scorpius nodded.

"Wow. I do everything in my bedroom at home. Sleep, study, relax..."

"Sulk," Scorpus added with a smirk.

"What do you mean sulk?" Albus asked, indignation in his voice. 

"Sulk," Scorpius answered, "you know - sulk when you're angry with your dad, sulk when you're angry with your brother, sulk when you're angry with your mom, sulk when you're..."

"Ok, ok!" Albus interrupted with a smile, he put his hand to Scorpius's chest a gave him a little push, "I admit it. I do sulk sometimes - but only occasionally!"

Scorpus grinned. He liked it when Albus sulked, it was cute. In fact, he almost told him so right there and then, but fortunately it would take more than one shot of almond liquer for him to say something so friendship-destroyingly stupid.

"I guess I don't really think of this as anything more than a place to sleep," Scorpius explained, "I'm only here during the summer - I consider the boy's dorm more of a nest than this."

Albus nodded his agreement, and Scorpius began to revel in his newfound nonchalance which he had been granted by the inhibition-quelling properties of the muggle alcohol.

"You know," he continued, "I actually used to hate this room. It's so far from everything else in the house, whenever I had a bad dream when I was young I had to run down three dark corridors to get to my mom and dad's room, it was more frightening than the dream itself!"

Albus nodded, when he was a child he'd been mere metres away from his parents' bed, yet running from his bedroom door to his parents' had seemed like a dash of death.

"At Hogwart's I know that if I have a bad dream I have you right next to me," Scorpius continued, "so it's not like anything can happen. I feel safe there."

Wait.

What did I just say?, he asked himself, now far too aware of the full effects that the alcohol had had on him.

Albus's cheeks were flushed red with what Scorpius could only assume was shame. How could he have allowed himself to say something so stupid?

"What I meant was..." he began, but Albus interrupted him.

"No. Don't worry. I feel the same way," he looked down towards his freshly polished boots, "I feel safer at Hogwart's because I know I have you there, too."

He looked back up at Scorpius, meeting his gaze, and Scorpius was sure he felt something pass between the two of them. Something more than friendship.

"You're drunk," he told himself mentally.

"No I'm not. I've barely drank anything," he answered, although he was fully aware of the fact that answering oneself isn't a typical sign of sobriety, nor sanity for that matter, and he silenced his mental inner-dialogue immediately.

The embarrassment in Albus's cheeks began to fade and the smile returned.

Scorpius noticed that there was now a tiny voice in the back of his mind. It was telling him that that the worst thing he could possibly do at that moment in time, would be to kiss Albus. 

Another, unfortunately much stronger voice, was telling him just the opposite.

Alcohol, he told himself uselessly. 

It made no difference, of course. The beauty of drunkenness is that one merely follows his heart and doesn't worry about the potentially disastrous consequences that such a thing could lead too.

"So..." Albus began, although he didn't have anything more to say.

"So..." Scorpius whispered back. He was doing everything he could to not let his lips fall tenderly onto Albus's, yet secretly he wished he'd drank just a little more liquer - just enough to quell the final inhibitions that were stopping him from doing the thing he'd spent years dreaming off.

"Do it." The voice told him.

Scorpius tried to ignore it. He tried to think of something to say -

"Kiss him," the voice urged.

Albus hadn't moved, he seemed to be frozen to the spot. His smile had faded but it hadn't been replaced by a frown, his lips were simply relaxed, as if waiting for the inevitable.

"Ok," Scorpius decided, I'm going to do it. This is it.

The moment he accepted his fate there was no going back. Scorpius took the tiny step forward that was necessary to bring the two toe to toe, and as he did so a huge bang shook the house.

The two boys head's snapped to the bedroom window to witness the beginning of the fireworks display.

"Shit!", Scorpius swore mentally.

He came to his senses immediately, taking three steps back as he did so and shaking the living nightmare he'd nearly caused out of his head.

"We should go down," he ordered, trying to hide the relief in his voice. He turned immediately and headed out of the door. He needed to hide the shame that had filled his face from Albus. What on Earth had he been thinking? Thank Merlin the fireworks hadn't gone off a second later.


	12. Chapter 12

The Malfoy's Christmas party had gone on for so long, and been so entertaining, that Albus had all but forgotten about his would-be moment of passion with Scorpius by the time he arrived home.

In fact, he'd barely managed to stay awake for more than twenty minutes before falling asleep atop his bed. It was morning now, though, and he'd awoken relatively late. He could hear people moving around downstairs and decided it was time he should join his family. As he made his way onto the landing, though, he knew something was wrong.

He tiptoed quietly down the stairs as quietly as he could. He wasn't quite sure why he didn't want to be heard, exactly, but he had a hunch that his presence wasn't wanted.

The living room was empty, as was the dining room, but there was noise coming from the back of the house.

"Don't put butter on that toast," James's voice said from the kitchen, "it's for Albus."

"I thought Al liked his toast buttered?" Albus's father asked, somewhat kindly.

"Father," James's said matter-of-factly, "how much did that butter cost?"

"About a muggle pound, give or take,"

"Are you really going to waste a portion of it on Albus?"

"Goodness me, no!" Harry exclaimed.

The two Potter's burst into cruel laughter. Albus, though, didn't find the joke particularly funny, nor imaginative for that matter.

"Actually," Harry continued, "give that toast to the neighbour's dog. He'd appreciate it more."

Albus was nearer now. He had reached the kitchen door and had crouched, his arms wrapped around his pyjama-clad knees, against the wall. He wanted to listen, but he didn't want to be seen. His only company here were his brother's dirty boots, that were lying next to the back door, covered in fresh, light brown mud.

The laughter was getting louder, and Albus noticed that each of his father's guffaws made his heart sink a little.

Once the laughter had stopped the house fell eerily silent. Albus couldn't see James, nor his father, but somehow he knew their mood had changed. There was a thick sense of seriousness in the air.

"Father," James began, almost whispering now, "there's something you need to know about Albus."

Albus froze.

"What is it, son?"

"Well..." James's voice became even quieter, "he told me something a few days ago, and I think you should know about it-"

The volume of James's voice dropped with every syllable. Albus wanted to hear what he was saying. He wanted to make sure his brother wasn't about to betray his darkest secret to his father, but he couldn't hear a thing.

There was a pause.

James whispered three words. Albus couldn't make them out, but he knew what they were. His father's reaction confirmed it.

"No!" Harry Potter cried, standing up so suddenly, and with such force, that the chair he was sitting on flew across the kitchen floor and smashed against the wall. "Tell me it's not true!"

"I'm sorry, father," James answered solemnly.

"But... but... he can't be!" Harry stuttered.

Hot tears began to stream down Albus's cheeks as he sat on the carpeted floor of the Potter's hall. How could James have done this to him mere days after promising to hide his sexuality from his father?

"Where is he?" There was anger in the elder Potter's voice now, "where is he?"

Heavy footsteps began to echo through the house as Harry Potter marched towards the kitchen door. As he approached, Albus could feel his steps vibrating through the floor. He tensed. He put his head in his arms and didn't dare look up.

The footsteps stopped.

Albus hesitated for what seemed like hours before raising his head slowly from his knees. Next to him, planted firmly on the blue floor, were two bare feet - his father's.

He gradually shifted his view upwards. Harry's cloak was blurred by the tears that were still streaming from Albus's reddened eyes.

"Dad, please..." he mumbled as he wiped the tears from his eyes, "Dad..."

Albus wasn't sure what he saw first: the wand raised in the air, green sparks beginning to burst from its tip, or the face he'd been praying he'd never see looking down at him again. A heartless face full of anger, disgust and hatred. A face that was completely void of humanity, and completely void of a nose.

"Avada K-" Lord Voldemort began to hiss in a snake-like voice.

Albus shot to his feet and ran into the kitchen. Only a moment before he had been frozen to the spot, but now his heart was racing and his only priority was to escape.

"James!" He cried, looking around the kitchen for his brother.

"Albus?" A voice hissed.

Albus turned sharply to see, not his brother, but a giant snake sliding towards him, gliding effortlessly over James Potter's cold, white corpse.

"No," Albus whimpered.

He edged backwards, pressing his body as firmly as he could against the wall. He new that in only a few seconds the snake would pounce. There was nowhere for him to run.

Nagini stopped and lowered her scaly head. Her master was approaching, still dressed in the clothes of Harry Potter.

As the distance between him and Albus reduced, he raises his wand again, this time with a perverted smile on his reptile-like face.

"Avada Kedavra!" He hissed.

A bolt of green light shot from the tip of Voldemort's wand and his Albus square in the face.

It took less than a second for it all to end.

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Death wasn't as Albus had expected it to be. Actually, he had never really questioned what death would be like. He'd always assumed he had many years ahead of him, yet here he was, in the after life.

But that was just the thing. There was no afterlife. There was nothing. Only darkness and a constant, tedious ticking noise.

It took him a few minutes, but eventually he realised that the ticking noise wasn't an unexpected aspect of the afterlife, but it was in fact the alarm clock that sat on his bedside table, and rather than dead, he was , in fact, asleep.

He rolled out of bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He was surprised to find that the effects of the dream hadn't quite gone away. One normally feels relief upon awaking from a nightmare, but Albus could still feel the same sense of doom weighing down on him, albeit with less intensity.

It'll pass, he told himself.

He left his bedroom, not bothering to change out of his pyjamas, and headed down the stairs.

"I AM A PRINCESS!" Lily was shouting sternly from the arm of the sofa where she was perched staring angrily at James.

"If you say so," her eldest brother answered with a smirk on his lips.

"What do you mean if I say so?" Lily folded her arms crossly, "I AM a princess!"

"Ok, ok, whatever you say," James shrugged.

Albus's father was sat in an armchair near the fire. He had his head in the Daily Prophet. Albus was relieved to see it was a perfectly human head, with a fully formed nose. Nothing like the one he had seen only moments before.

"Morning," Harry muttered to Albus as his son passed through the living room.

"Mornin' dad," he answered.

When he reached the kitchen he found that his mother was busying herself with a tray of muffins.

"Good morning, Albus," she smiled, placing the baking tray in the oven as she did so, "do you want a cup of tea?"

Albus nodded and mumbled an almost-yes-response.

See, he told himself mentally, everything is normal.

And it was. His mother was baking unhealthy treats that she would later tell the mothers at Lily's old muggle, primary school that she never touches, his father was reading the newspaper - but only the most boring pages, naturally - and James was winding one of his siblings up.

"It was just a dream," he sighed.

"What was that, Al?" Ginny asked.

"Nothing!" Albus answered with a smile, "I was just talking to myself."

"That's the first sign of madness, you know!" Ginny joked as she places a steaming mug of tea on the table.

As Albus sat down she planted a light kiss atop his head and ruffled his messy hair.

"I shouldn't have expected anything less from this family, though." She smiled.

Albus laughed and picked up the mug. The tea was perfect. His mother's tea was always perfect. He'd always thought there was something special about a perfect cup of tea. He could sit for what seemed like an age sipping it whilst not really doing, nor thinking about, anything else. He just allowed his mind to wander as he sipped the hot liquid.

If he'd been purposefully looking he may have noticed sooner, but it was by mere coincidence that his eyes fell on the doormat.

'WELCOME' it sad in faded black letters. It had been there for as long as Albus could remember, yet he'd never really paid any attention to it before. Now, though, he was drawn to it.

It took him a while to realise why, but then it clicked. Next to the doormat lay two brown boots. Two brown boots that were covered in dried, light brown mud. They belonged to James, and it wasn't the first time he'd seen them today.

Albus's heart began to beat slightly quicker.

The feeling of dread returned.

It was just a dream, he told himself again.

But dreams and reality were supposed to be separate.

It was just a dream, he insisted again.

But those shoes were real.

What if it was more than a dream?

He shook his head, trying to ignore the voice.

He stood up from the kitchen table and made to head back to the normality of his family's life, but as he turned around he found himself face-to-face, yet again, with James.

His heart froze.

It was a reaction that the presence of his brother shouldn't have on him.

It was the same reaction that he'd had to seeing Lord Voldemort's face.

He wanted to run.

He knew he was in danger.


	13. Chapter 13

"Al?"

Albus didn't say anything. He was uncomfortable, and although James had done nothing but say his name, his mind was telling him that something wasn't right.

"What's up?" James asked, in a far too normal way, Albus thought.

"Nothing. What's up with you?"

James shrugged.

"Where have you been?"

"In the living room," James answered with another shrug.

His brother's nonchalance was off-putting to Albus. He had half expected a confrontation, but instead he was beginning to feel a little awkward.

"You went somewhere this morning," Albus accused, "early, before anybody was up."

He was perfectly aware that the last part was complete speculation, but he wanted to believe that if one of his parents had seen him leave the house they would have at least enquired about his intentions.

"Yeah," James admitted, "I went somewhere. To the bathroom."

He grinned and made his way towards the fridge.

"I'm being serious," Albus snapped, following his brother with his eyes, "you went out this morning, somewhere muddy, and I want to know where it was!"

"What are you talking about, Al?" James looked confused, rather than annoyed, "where would I go in the wee hours of the morning, dressed in my pyjamas?"

"I don't know..." Albus began, and then he realised that his brother had a point, "well.."

He stumbled over what to say next as James poured milk into a bowl of cereal.

"Your boots are muddy!" He exclaimed, somewhat triumphantly, whilst pointing an accusing finger at the boots which still lay beside the back door.

James glanced at the boots and shrugged, again. Albus wished he would stop doing that.

"I took Lily to the park last night. They got muddy, so what?" James was leaning against the counter now, munching on the cereal he had begun to shovel into his mouth.

"The mud's still wet," Albus pointed out.

"Yeah? And? It's the middle of winter, it takes more than a night for things to dry in the cold."

"But..." Albus struggled to find another argument.

"Al, are you alright?" James asked, looking a little concerned, and sounding very condescending.

"Yes!" Albus snapped back, annoyed, " I'm bloody fine! I just want to know where you've been!"

James held his arms out in a way that emitted I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about defensiveness.

"Al, I haven't been anywhere. They're just a pair of dirty boots. I'm pretty sure almost every house on the street has a pair of dirty boots by the back door. What's your problem?"

"I haven't got a problem, I just..." Albus began, "I just... I don't know."

This time it was Albus who shrugged.

"Riiiiiight," James looked thoroughly confused now, and Albus was beginning to feel a little foolish, "so, is there anything else?"

Albus shook his head idiotically.

"'Kay. I'll just finish eating my breakfast, if that's alright with you?"

"Ok." Albus mumbled. He waited a moment, just long enough for James to turn his attention back to his now soggy cereal, and turned on his heel.

He all but ran out of the kitchen and made his way through the living room without making eye contact with anyone. What the hell had he just done? He'd literally accused his brother of creeping around the neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning with no more evidence than a pair of dirty boots and the, now fading, recollection of a nightmare.

He could have kicked himself. 

All he wanted to do in that moment was go back to his bedroom and start the day over.

You're such an idiot, he scalded himself in his mind as he threw himself face down on his bed.

He was so focused on the embarrassment that he'd just experienced, and so preoccupied with internally insulting himself, that he didn't notice he had been followed.

"Are you sure you're OK?" James's voice asked from the doorway.

Albus rolled over with a start.

"Yes, I'm fine." He answered.

"OK." 

James made to turn and leave, but he stopped himself, he looked back at his younger brother as if he were going to say something, then turned around and walked away.

After only two steps, though, he changed his mind again and came back.

"Look," he sighed, "I said I'm sorry, and I meant it."

James was no longer making eye contact with Albus. Instead, he was starring at the floor.

"I know," Albus replied, "I'm fine, I promise."

"So what was all that about downstairs?"

"Nothing, I just thought..." Albus sighed, he wasn't sure what he'd though. When he'd first turned around and seen James standing behind him in the kitchen he'd felt terrified - there was no other word for it - yet now, seeing his brother so clearly struggling with his emotions, he only felt sorry for him.

"I just had a stupid dream, James." Albus rolled off the bed and walked over to where his brother was standing, "really. It's nothing to do with what happened. I'm over it, I understand why you said what you said. I just want things to go back to normal."

James's mood seemed to improve a little, he glanced up at Albus and smirked.

"Normal?" He asked.

"As normal as this family's ever been," Albus answered with a grin.

"So not normal at all then, I take it?" 

The two brother laughed in agreement.

"That sounds about right," Albus agreed.

"Perfect. Everything's back to not-normal then," James straightened, returning fully to his usual self, "come on, we've still got four days of the Christmas holidays left to torture mom and dad. It wouldn't be right for us to leave until they're completely sick of us."

James winked and led the way back downstairs. Albus chuckled and followed, but despite his mind telling him everything was fine, there was still a sense of dread weighing heavily on his heart.

Something was coming. He didn't know what, but he knew it was only a matter of time.

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The library was, by far, Scorpius's favourite room in the Malfoy Manor. Not least because it housed his beloved books, but also because it was thoroughly pleasing to the eye. Every wall was covered from top to toe in a myriad of books, many of them were ancient, the colours of their expertly manufactured covers faded and covered in dust, whilst others were newer additions, and stood out like shiny pearls amongst the monotonously organised volumes.

The long room was kept warm by eight large, roaring fireplaces which lined the thick, stone walls. The fires were maintained by an army of house elves, all of whom were generously rewarded for their work. 

In order to make the most of the precious storage space, bookshelves had been built along every available inch of wall. They reached into every nook and cranny, they hugged the fireplaces and crowned the door frames. Not a single piece of wall had been left untouched.

The only windows were in the ceiling. They allowed natural light to flood the room without taking up precious wall space. Now, though, as mid-afternoon approached, the winter sun was beginning to sink slowly towards the horizon, and Scorpius found himself in need of candle light to continue his reading.

The large, freshly purchased book which Scorpius was balancing on his knees had been a Christmas gift from his father; Advanced Muggle Studies was its title, and despite being a textbook that was usually only prescribed to seventh year students, Scorpius was enjoying it immensely. He was enjoying it so much, in fact, that he'd been reading it for nearly four hours when his father finally poked his head into the library to check on him.

"Is everything OK, son?" He asked as he entered.

"Yes, father," Scorpius answered without taking his eyes off the page.

"Very good."

Draco busied himself with tidying the already perfect bookshelves.

"Father," Scorpius asked, "what's an electrical circuit?"

"Hum..." Draco looked over his shoulder at his son and contemplated the question for a moment, before concluding, "I imagine it's something similar to Quidditch."

"Are you sure?" Scorpius looked up confused, "that's not what the book seems to be referring to at all."

"I'm quite sure, Scorpius," his father replied.

"Right." He looked back down at the page, "what about a light bulb? Here it says that a basic electrical circuit can be tested by inserting a bulb into it."

"A bulb is like a flame, surrounded by glass," Draco seemed much more confident with this answer.

"Like a candle in a tiny fish tank?" Scorpius asked, making a little, airborne diagram with his finger.

"Something like that, yes." His father snwered.

"So what does that have to do with Quidditch?"

"I don't know, Scorpius."

"And what about, hmm..." Scorpius bit his lip as he scanned the page for more muggle artefacts he'd failed to find definitions for.

"Why don't we go through to the sitting room?" Draco asked whilst crossing the room and placing a hand on his son's shoulder, as if hoping to guide him out of the library and away from the questions that he knew he was entirely unqualified to answer.

Scorpius agreed with a nod and led his father out of the library and down one of the many long corridors that made up the Malfoy Manor. If the library was Scorpius's favourite room, then the sitting room was a close second.

It was by far the most modern room in the house. It had, in fact, been an extension added on request of his mother. The entirety of the outer wall had been replaced by glass, and in the centre of the shiny, white, marble floor lay an elegant, shaggy rug, upon which sat two armchairs and a sofa. The only other furniture in the room was a low sitting, oak coffee table.

Scorpius's father had often remarked that he regretted not being able to give his son a muggle television, despite how happy he knew it would make him, but this was the next best thing. From the comfort of one of the chairs one could see out across the whole of the Manor's grounds. Now, in winter, they glistened in snowy splendour, and Scorpius enjoyed nothing more than watching the sun go down behind the seemingly endless rows of trees that bordered them.

Scorpius and his father took a seat in separate armchairs and accepted the two steaming cups of tea that had floated, buoyed by house-elf magic, towards them. The sofa that sat between them was almost always left empty. The only time it was ever used was when Scorpius's grandparents were in attendance, and even then they sat as far away as physically possible from each other. It wasn't considered proper to show ones closeness to another being inside the formality of the Malfoy Manor, here even Scorpius felt uncomfortable expressing his sentiments.

"It's really quite something, isn't it?" Draco commented, as he looked out across the grounds.

"It is," Scorpius agreed.

"You know I was never particularly fond of this place when I was your age, it wasn't until you and your mother came along that I began to appreciate it." Draco glanced over at his son, "I hope you don't resent it due to the loneliness you felt here as a child."

"I don't resent it, father," Scorpius reassured, "I, too, have come to appreciate it."

"Good." Draco smiled and turned his attention back to the grounds.

The two Malfoy's sat in silence for a while, admiring the sun as its descent cast long, dark shadows across the snow.

"I'm glad you befriended Albus, Son," Draco began once he'd finished his tea, "he's really very good for you."

Scorpius felt his cheeks burn a little. 

"What do you mean, good for me?" He asked.

"I mean you make two fantastic friends. I would have killed to have a friendship like yours when I was at school," Draco began to reminisce, "it's true that I was a popular member of Slytherin house, indeed, but I never had any true friends. Not unless you count Crabbe and Goyle, and if you'll allow me to be frank, they couldn't hold a candle to Albus Potter."

Scorpius's embarrassment had faded, and the warmth that he now felt burning in his cheeks was one of pride.

"Thank you, father," he responded.

"Honestly, Scorpius, I was always so concerned that you'd struggle to make friends, what with your surname and all, and now look at you! You've gone and-"

"Father," Scorpius interrupted, "I'm not embarrassed of my name, I hope you know that. in fact, I'm proud of it."

Draco fell silent and looked at his son inquisitively. He'd never dream of using legilimency on his own flesh and blood, but if he were to do so he was sure he would find he was being lied to.

"You don't have to say that for my benefit, Scorpius."

"Really, father, I used to hate being a Malfoy, but now I'm proud of it. I'm proud of mom for being so strong, I'm proud of you being the person you are despite your past, and - if I may be so immodest, I'm kind of proud of myself for participating in the salvation of the world as we know it."

Draco grinned at his son.

"What?" He asked, feeling like his sentimental outpouring was deserving of a reaction other than laughter.

"That's a very eloquent way of saying your got yourself into a mess and the Minister for Magic herself had to travel back in time to participate in saving you." Draco chuckled.

"It is," Scorpius laughed, "but I'm still proud of it."

"I see," Draco began to laugh harder. Since the passing of Scorpius's mother he had hardly ever smiled, and laughter was an even rarer luxury for him nowadays.

"You should smile more," Scorpius remarked, "when you're around people, I mean, so they don't think you're so, you know, evil."

Draco gave an amused sigh and stood up, he crossed the room and sat, perched, on the arm of Scorpius's chair.

"Son, I learned a long time ago not to concern myself with what other people think of me. The only people whose opinion I care about are yours, and your mother's." He placed an arm around his son's shoulders. He'd never spoken about his late wife with Scorpius. He didn't trust himself to handle such a delicate topic in the correct way.

"Do you think she's watching us?" Scorpius whispered, feeling rather embarrassed to be asking such a thing.

"I certainly do, Son."

"Yeah. Me too."

"You know, I'll miss you dearly when you return to Hogwarts, Scorp."

"I'm gonna miss you too, dad."

Draco smiled, planted a light kiss on the top of his son's head and ruffled his messy, blonde hair. He held Scorpius close to him, feeling both pride and sadness as he thought of his only child returning to Hogwarts, and starred out into the now completely dark grounds.


	14. Chapter 14

The final days of the Christmas break rolled around quickly, and before the Potters knew it, it was time for their three children to return to Hogwarts. Albus had gone to bed early the night before the Hogwarts Express left Kings Cross. His mother had already helped him pack his school books and robes into his trunk, and everything was ready for him to leave.

At least that is what he had thought.

Now it was 9AM and he was sat in the living room, squashed between James and his uncle Ron on the sofa, holding onto a cup of tea in one hand and a half-eaten slice of toast in the other. His grandmother, Molly, was stood in the middle of the room with her wand arm outstretched.

"Honestly Ginny," she complained, "I don't know why you insist on using that dreadful machine to clean the children's clothes."

The room was filled with James and Albus's clothes, and with each flick of Molly's wand a t-shirt, robe or pair of trousers flew into the air, dampened itself and began to knock and rub itself against a wooden washboard that floated near the window. After a few seconds each garment dried itself magically, before folding itself neatly in mid-air and falling into place inside one of the brother's trunks. Lily's trunk had, somewhat inexplicably, passed their grandmother's inspection and lay closed next to the front door.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with the way I wash the children's clothes," Ginny replied, annoyed, "I've told you I don't know how many times that we use the washing machine so that the electricity board doesn't get suspicious about us never consuming any energy."

"The electricity board? Is that the nice man who came round once, when I was looking after the children, dear?" Molly asked.

"Yes, mother. The one you confunded." 

"Ah yes."

"Besides," Ginny continued, "the washing machine is actually far more eficient, and modern, than an enchanted washboard."

Molly didn't answer. Although she respected the muggles and found their non-magical work-arounds rather amusing, she was too set in her ways to acknowledge that, on occasion, muggle technology was superior to magic.

Albus found the movement of the clothes hypnotising, and he'd long since stopped paying attention to his half-consumed, and now cold, breakfast. He starred as a pair of socks folded themselves neatly atop a pair of grey trousers, and his mind began to drift to the day that lay ahead.

In only a few hours, he realised, he would be reunited with Scorpius. Not reunited like they had been at Malfoy Manor, where they were surrounded by adults and siblings, but reunited at Hogwarts - the only place on the planet where Albus could be truly alone with his best friend. He was anxiously looking forward to it, yet dreading it at the same time.

He couldn't shake the memory of the sparks he'd felt running through his veins in Scorpius's bedroom. He had already accepted that it was just a part of his imagination, a fictitious teenage fantasy, but he wanted so desperately for it to be real that he almost wanted to avoid seeing Scorpius again, at least that way he could continue lying to himself that it was authentic. He realised, of course, that these feelings were all fuelled by his teenage hormones and that as soon as he was on the Hogwarts Express with his best friend he would be fine.

Albus's trance was broken by a burst of green light that filled the room. It emanated from the fireplace, and when it subsided his cousin Rose stepped out. Albus sensed immediately that she had a particular air of superiority about her that day, more so than usual. 

"Good morning Auntie Ginny, Nan, Uncle Harry, Lily, James..." she nodded in the direction of each family member as she said their name, "father."

Albus noticed the purposeful emission of his name, but chose not to comment on it.

"As some of you already know," Rose continued, as if speaking to an audience, "Hogwart's will be welcoming a new student into its folds this term, an international student, no less."

This was the first Albus had heard of any new students and, although he didn't know why, he found that his interest was piqued. 

"Elena has been home schooled her entire life, as is the norm for wizardkind in Spain, and this will be her first experience in a magical school. Due to the unprecedented nature of this, Professor McGonagall has asked that I personally take care of Elena during her first weeks amongst us." Rose paused dramatically, holding out her arms as if awaiting an applause.

"Yes, we know dear, you've told us quite a few times already," Molly said kindly, "now take out your wand and help me with these robes, dear."

James audibly stifled a laugh which earned him a threatening glare from Rose.

"Sorry," he mumbled, "I'm sure she'll be very pleased with her personal looker-after-er" 

"Indeed." Rose answered coldly. Her grandmother's reaction had clearly taken the wind out of her sails.

Albus would have felt a little sorry for her, if she weren't Rose. Maybe, too, if he were less interested in the new student. Spanish and home schooled? To Albus's ears those things meant she was an outsider, like him - like Scorpius. He didn't want to get his hopes up, but perhaps there would finally be someone at Hogwarts who really got he and Scorpius. 

This thought stayed with Albus throughout the trip to Kings Cross and onto platform 9 3/4. He knew it was silly, and he'd never admit such a thing to Harry, but he'd always loved to hear his father's tales of his time at Hogwarts with uncle Ron and aunt Hermione. Their friendship had been so strong that occasionally, in those quiet times when he had nothing to do but daydream, he had imagined himself with a group of friends like his father's. Perhaps he, Scorpius and Elena would be the next Harry, Ron and Hermione. He knew he was letting his imagination run away with itself, and he put all thoughts of the never-going-to-happen friendship with Elena out of the way when the time came to say goodbye to his family and board the Hogwarts Express. 

He knew that Scorpius was around, but between the hugs, kisses, goodbyes and I love yous he hadn't yet spotted his blonde friend. In fact, he wasn't reunited with him until he finally reached the carriage they had shared since first year.

"Albus!" Scorpius exclaimed as the youngest Potter son slid the wooden door open.

Scorpius launched himself at Albus and wrapped his arms around him before he even had chance to wheel his trunk in from the aisle.

"How are you?" Scorpius asked, his face filled with happiness at being reunited with his best friend.

"I'm fine," Albus grinned, entering and taking a seat in the compartment, "you know we saw each other like a week ago, right?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes, as always, there was no way of dousing his over-enthusiasm.

"Look!" He exclaimed, holding out a paper cup at Albus, "I got you a Starbucks!"

Albus laughed as he accepted the warm cup.

"I don't even like coffee, Scorp."

"I know, that's why I didn't get you a coffee. It's a Chai Latte," he explained, and with a smile and a shrug he added, "tea. You like tea."

"I do," Albus agreed with a nod, and he took a sip of the creamy, cinnamon-spiced liquid.

"Mine's a hot chocolate." Scorpius held up his own green and white cup, "with mint."

Albus smiled. His worries that morning had been unfounded. Being in Scorpius's presence felt as natural as it always had and the two friends spent the next hour chatting away. They already knew everything that the other had done during the Christmas holidays, but for some reason they were both eager to describe their break, day by day, to the other. They'd gotten to Christmas Eve when the door to their compartment slid open and a tall, tanned girl with thick and curly black hair poked her head in.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry," she apologised with a noticeable Mediterranean accent, "I think I am in the wrong carriage. I'm looking for Rose Granger-Weasely. Do you know her?"

"Oh, she's in the first carriage, with the prefects." Albus answered. He felt suddenly shy, "I think she normally sits in compartment C. This is compartment C, too, just not the same carriage."

"Oh thanks!" The girl answered, looking relieved, "I was supposed to meet her there before the train departed but I arrived early and got carried around exploring the place."

"Right." 

Albus, regardless of how much he wanted to strike up a conversation with this girl, didn't know quite what to say. He had never been good at conversation, and the only reply that came to his head was why would you want to explore a train that's made up of two dozen identical carriages?.

"OK, thank you so much for your help, I'll leave you two alone now," the girl smiled a bright, friendly smile and made to leave.

"Wait!" Albus jumped to his feet and went over to the girl, "I'm Albus. Albus Potter."

He held out his hand for her to shake.

"Oh, nice to meet you Albus. I'm Elena." Elena ignored the hand Albus was holding out and pulled him, by the shoulder, towards her. She planted a kiss on each of his cheeks before turning to Scorpius.

"And you?" She asked.

"Oh..." Scorpius's pale face flushed red with embarrassment. "I'm Scorpius."

"Nice to meet you, Scorpius!" She leaned down and gave Scorpius an identical kiss on each cheek, leaving the boy even redder than he had been before.

Elena took a seat opposite Scorpius and waited for Albus to sit down next to him before she began speaking again.

"I'm from Spain, you may have noticed from my accent. This is my first year at Hogwarts. Actually, it is my first year anywhere. I was home-schooled by my father until earlier this year, it became too much in the end, though. The magical community in Spain is not as strong as it is here in the UK. We live amongst no-mags and have to hide our powers-"

"No-mags?" Albus asked, confused.

"Muggles." Scorpius answered without taking his eyes of Elena, he was clearly fascinated by the girl and what she had to say.

"Ah yes, you call them muggles here. I learnt everything I know about the Wizarding World from American books," Elena explained, "I know very little about Hogwarts and the British wizarding society."

She stopped and waited. It took Albus and Scorpius a moment to realise what it was she was waiting for - it was their turn to introduce themselves properly. Clearly the norm in Spain was for two individuals to share their life stories upon meeting each other for the first time.

Albus began, he mumbled as much as he could muster about his family and his life. He left out the most dramatic parts, specifically any and all drama related to his father, and underplayed the scandal he and Scorpius had caused in their fourth year.

Scorpius, however, was much more eloquent than Albus. He began what seemed like a well-prepared resumé of his life. There were no stutters, no nervous blushes and, to Albus's slight horror, no censoring of the truth. He simply spoke, as Scorpius always did, the truth. 

As Scorpius's autobiographical presentation came to an end Albus half-expected Elena to make a mad dash for Rose's compartment. He was surprised to find, however, that she simply shrugged and smiled.

"We all have drama in our lives, I know, I'm Spanish."

She and Scorpius both laughed, and Albus felt obliged to join in, although he didn't know what they were supposed to be finding funny.

"You're Spanish," Scorpius continued the conversation in his always-bubbly manner, "but from where?"

"I'm from Tarragona, in the East." Elena answered.

"That's so interesting," Scorpius replied.

As it happened, Albus didn't find that snippet of information at all interesting. In fact, it meant absolutely nothing to him.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Scorpius began, as he often did before saying something which was never inaccurate, "but Tarragona forms part of Muggle Spain, but remains under the control of the Aragonese Wizarding Council."

Elena nodded, clearly Scorpius wasn't wrong at all.

"You're completely right. It was actually quite a shock for me when I realised the country I live in is considered Spain by the no-mag- sorry - muggles."

"Hmm, hmm," Scorpius nodded frantically. Clearly he was more interested in interviewing Elena than he was in rekindling the conversation he had previously been having with Albus.

"Look," Elena said after another ten minutes of talking, "I really must go and find this Rose girl, she's been so kind offering to help me. I hope we can speak soon Scorpius, you too, Albus."

She stood and gave the two boys another kiss on each cheek before finally leaving.

When Elena had left and was well out of earshot Scorpius turned to face Albus. 

"Oh wow!" He said, his face full of innocent excitement, "she's so nice!"

Albus wanted to answer sarcastically. He wanted to snap at Scorpius. He wanted to make sure his friend knew he wasn't happy with him spending half of the journey to Hogwarts talking to a complete stranger and paying no attention whatsoever to his best friend, but the excitement in his companion's eyes prevented him from doing so. Instead, he agreed with a nod.

"Do you think she'll be sorted into Slytherin?" Scorpius asked, still excited.

Albus shrugged.

"I wonder how she'll be sorted, actually, I can't imagine they'll hold a sorting ceremony just for one person."

Albus shrugged again.

"It would be quite unprecedented, and quite nerve wracking for her I should imagine."

Albus tried to shrug again, but this time his shoulders just stiffened a little.

"I should have asked her."

Albus did nothing.

"Al?"

There was a moment's silence. Albus, not wanting to admit his jealousy, changed the subject. 

"We should get changed into our robes, we'll be arriving soon." He said, standing up and reaching for his trunk as he did so.

"Oh, right," Scorpius nodded, trying not to be too disappointed at his friend's apparent lack of interest. He gathered his own robes from his trunk and began to change. Scorpius had the feeling that this journey to Hogwarts was going to be a long one.

If Albus's sudden mood shift was any indication, he was right.


	15. Chapter 15

The rest of the journey aboard the Hogwarts Express had passed by quickly. After his initial jealousy Albus had been able to calm down and realise that, regardless of how it had made him feel, Scorpius had done nothing but be friendly to Elena. His friendliness had always been one of the things that Albus most liked about Scorpius, and he had realised it had been thoroughly unfair to be stroppy about it.

After Elena left and the boys changed into their robes they continued their conversation, albeit this time they spoke about the term ahead, rather than the holidays that had just ended. As was to be expected, neither Albus nor Scorpius were looking forward to returning to Hogwarts. Were they more popular than before? Yes - potentially more so than they had ever been. Did that mean they were completely free of the jibes, funny looks and giggles at their expense? Absolutely not. Still, they had both long since come to terms with this and weren't particularly affected by it. What they were really not looking forward to were the upcoming exams. Apparently fifth year finals were the worst.

Albus had always considered Scorpius to be the intelligent one of the two, although in reality Albus was equally as bright as his best friend. There was no denying, however, that a life full of reading and his generally inquisitive nature had made Scorpius the more knowledgeable of the two. It was because of this that, before arriving in Hogsmeade, the boys had agreed to finish their dinner as quickly as possible and head down the the dungeons whilst the common room was still quiet, so that Scorpius could look over Albus's charms and defence against the dark arts homework.

It appeared that, for once, fate was on their side as the start of term feast had started relatively early, Professor McGonagall's speech had been short, and the courses had been somewhat less extravagant than other years. By seven thirty the Slytherin students were already finishing their dessert.

Albus knew that after the tables were cleared the majority of students would spend at least another hour chatting over hot chocolate and, for the older students and professors, coffee. He found that the idea of retiring early to the common room with Scorpius was quite exciting, even if it was to study. He was so excited, in fact, that the very second his best friend put his dessert spoon down he opened his mouth to ask 'shall we go?'. He didn't get the chance, however, because as soon as he lifted his head, he spotted Elena approaching the pair.

"Hi!" She said happily as she approached the boys.

Scorpius hadn't noticed her approach, and his face broke into a surprised smile when he turned around and realised she was speaking to him.

"Hello!" He half-shouted in his excitement.

Albus smiled politely.

Elena immediately broke into an explanation of how Professor McGonagall had encouraged her to speak with people from all four houses before being sorted, privately, the following morning. She asked Scorpius about the different houses and what each one represented and he, naturally, jumped at the chance to regurgitate what Albus assumed was a good 70% of Hogwarts: A History.

The minutes seemed to rush by at a faster rate than usual, but despite this Albus wanted to be courteous, and he had no intention of forcefully ending Elena and Scorpius's conversation. After thirty minutes, however, he felt like it was more than time Scorpius said goodbye and fulfilled his promise to help Albus with his homework.

"Scorp," he announced loudly, realising he was cutting Elena off mid-sentence.

The two turned their heads to look at Albus. It was in that moment that he realised Elena hadn't said a single word to him since she'd come over - unless you count the hello that was supposedly aimed at the two of them.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," Albus lied, "it's just we really need to get on with that Charms homework."

"Oh gosh, of course..." Scorpius looked at Elena, presumably to say goodnight, but then turned his head back to Albus, "do we really need to do that right now?"

Albus was taken aback, and somewhat annoyed, but he tried not to display any reaction on his face.

"I mean you've already done them, haven't you?" Scorpius continued in a tone that reminded Albus of the way Ministry members spoke to his father and aunt Hermione when they wanted something, "we just need to check over it, and that should take no time at all, should it?"

Albus wasn't sure what to make of Scorpius's new-found enthusiasm to remain with the other students.

"I mean, I'd feel almost rude leaving now, right in the middle of such an interesting conversation." Scorpius turned to face Elena who blushed and waved her hand in a oh, please! kind of way.

"Right. Fine." Albus said, trying to hide the annoyance in his voice. "We can stay here, I'd hate to break up... this."

He waved his hands in the general direction of Elena.

"Great! Thanks." Scorpius's face broke into a smile and he immediately turned his whole body back towards Elena. The Albus-free conversation continued.

Albus sat for a few minutes trying to decipher how exactly he was feeling. There was anger, annoyance, jealousy and upset there. He could just as easily of burst into tears as tipped the table over or got Elena in a headlock. The emotion that broke through the most, though, was hurt.

Maybe if Scorpius had been making any effort to include Albus in his conversation with Elena he wouldn't feel so bad, but his friend clearly had no interest in anything other than his new Mediterranean interest. Albus wasn't even sure Scorpius would notice if he left.

After a few more minutes he decided to put his theory to the test. He stood up and muttered a barely audible excuse about needing to use the bathroom. Neither Elena nor Scorpius listened, of course, and he was allowed to leave the Great Hall without the slightest protestation from his, supposed, best friend.

He didn't go to the bathroom, of course, instead he headed to the Grand Staircase. He went down to the dungeons which were as breezy as ever and entered the Slytherin common room. As he had expected, there was nobody there but himself. He collected his charms textbook from his trunk, which had been left at the foot of his bed by the house elves whilst the students were having dinner, and sat himself down at a desk in the darkest corner of the room.

His intention had been to revise his own charms essay, as Scorpius clearly had no intention of helping him, but his mind kept drifting back to his friend who was sat two storeys above him, chatting away like old friends with a girl he had only just met. Albus had been so used to being Scorpius's only friend that he had never asked himself how he might feel if one day somebody else entered the fray. He was discovering, now, that it didn't feel good at all.

After spending the previous two terms fighting with his feelings for Scorpius, he felt he had earned the right to keep him as his closest friend and confident, even if it could never be more than that. It was a selfish thought, of that he was well aware, but he couldn't quite get over how selfish he thought Scorpius, himself, was being.

Albus was tempted to wait for Scorpius to arrive, get angry and shout at him. Then he'd spend the next two weeks sulking. That would be the usual reaction for Albus, but his love for Scorpius was too strong for him to treat him so unfairly. Despite this, he knew that he couldn't just ignore his feelings and pretend nothing was wrong - if he tried to withhold any more emotions he felt like he would explode. No. Something needed to be said, but Albus wasn't sure quite what.

He didn't have much time to think about it, either, as within mere minutes the portrait door swung open and Scorpius walked in.

"Albus?" He half-asked, approaching his best friend.

"Hmm-hmm." Was Albus's response.

"Why did you leave? I thought you were going to the bathroom?"

"I have to finish my charms essay. I told you." Albus replied. He glanced fleetingly over his page of notes, trying to make it look like he'd been working on it for the last ten minutes.

"Oh, right. You did tell me." Scorpius blushed with shame, "I'm sorry. I got a little carried away speaking...."

"Flirting, you mean?" Albus added sarcastically.

"What?" Scorpius looked horrified by the suggestion.

"Don't worry. I get it, that Elena girl is far more interesting than my charms essay. Don't worry about it."

Albus tried to shrug casually, as if he understood Scorpius's behaviour perfectly. He was aware, though, that his mannerisms were coming off as confrontational, rather than passive. Scorpius was only aware of the aggression in his best friends voice, and he was hurt by it.

Neither of them were aware that they were being watched.

"Al!" Scorpius began, in what was little more than a squeak"Don't be like that, I was just talking..."

"Yeah. Not to me, though." Albus snapped.

Scorpius looked like he had been slapped in the face. How could Albus be saying these things to him? He knew about Scorpius's lonely childhood, and surely as his best friend he should have been glad that he had the chance to speak to somebody new.

"I'm sorry." Scorpius stated.

"Yeah, well, like I said - I'm not bothered." Albus shrugged again.

"No. I'm not sorry for speaking to Elena." Scorpius replied, "I'm sorry that you have no emotional integrity whatsoever."

Albus hadn't expected Scorpius to answer him like that. He looked his friend in the eye and noticed that, rather than upset, he now seemed annoyed.

"I'll remind you," Scorpius continued, a little louder now, "that you did exactly the same thing to me when we met Delphi-"

"That was different!" Albus interrupted, slamming his charms book shut and standing up.

"In what way? Because she was Voldemort's daughter? You didn't know that when you were all over her and completely ignoring my very existence!"

"That's not fair!"

"No. What isn't fair is that every time you feel the slightest emotion you take it out on the people that care about you," Scorpius was shouting now, but there was sadness in the anger, "you don't know how to deal with your feelings, Albus, and you make the people around you feel dreadful!"

Albus was well aware that this was the time for him to step down. He was supposed to sigh, lower his voice and apologise. Unfortunately, though, Scorpius was right. Albus didn't know how to deal with emotions, and his answer was always the same - anger.

"Yeah?" He shouted back, "well you know what? If you feel so dreadful' then why don't you piss off back upstairs and stay away from me?"

Scorpius was hurt. His face said that much. What Albus didn't know was whether the hurt was from his words, or from his dreadfully cruel way he had imitated Scorpius's accent when he said 'dreadful'.

"You don't get it do you?" Scorpius asked, his voice sounded like it was going to break, "I don't want to not be your friend, you just make it impossibly difficult to do so."

"Just go, Scorpius."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Scorpius, go!"

"No!"

"JUST LEAVE!" Albus roared, pulling out his wand.

"Albus what on Earth is wrong with you?" Scorpius as shocked. He couldn't quite recognise the person who standing in front of him. He'd never dreamt that Albus would threaten him with magic. As he stood there, wondering how things had gone so wrong, and questioning if he would be able to defend himself against the person he loved, he felt his heart begin to crumble.

"If you don't leave, I'll make you." Albus said with a cold voice. He had no intention of jinxing his friend, but as always he'd overreacted and got himself into a stupid position. He was too proud, or perhaps just too stupid, to back down now though.

"Albus, stop..."

"Expul-"

"Expelliarmus!"

Scorpius was quicker.

Albus felt an electric-like shock run through his fingers, causing them to jar open and allowing his wand to fly freely from his grasp. It flew through the air for a few seconds and landed in a dark, dusty corner.

Whatever, he thought angrily, I don't need magic.

He placed his hands underneath the desk he had been sat at, and with all his might (which was admittedly little) he threw it in Scorpius's direction.

He hadn't expected the table to go very far, in fact, he'd more or less assumed it would just tip over. It was the effect he was after. What he hadn't anticipated was that Scorpius, having grown up in an entirely magical environment, knew no other way of defending himself than by using magic - and that is what he did.

"Depulso!" He cried, sending a burst of blue magic towards the upturned table.

It flew across the common room, missing Albus by mere inches, and crashed against an old, mahogany cupboard, from which their one-person audience had been observing them. The door of the cupboard flew open and a burst of ice-cold air blew through the common room. It blew out all of the candles and reduced the roaring fire to glowing, orange embers.

"Scorp?" Albus whimpered through the darkness, their fight instantly forgotten, "Scorpius?"

There was no reply.

Albus could hear something moving in the icy darkness.

He knelt down and felt his way towards the wall where his wand had landed, he searched and searched until his hand felt the warm wooden handle. He knew there was danger looming, and he needed to protect his best friend. Slowly, and with all the bravery he could muster, he turned around to face the room and held out his wand.

"Lumos."

His wand lit up like a torch and what Albus saw made his blood turn to ice. Standing at the far side of the room was what, at one time, had been a woman. Now though, she was nothing more than water-rotten flesh over cracked bone. The monster's hair was wild and untamed, and its eyes, although once human, were white and misty. Albus knew, from his father's stories, that what he was facing was an Inferius.

The creature turned its head slowly in Albus's direction. She didn't look at him, rather, she looked at the light emitting from his wand. It seemed to amused her. Her black, leathery lips cracked into an open-mouthed smile, causing murky water to tumble from them. She clearly wasn't intimidated by the magic as a second later she turned her head towards Scorpius, who was frozen to the spot, horror plastered across his face.

Albus realised in that moment that he had seen this creature before. This woman was, or had once been, Astoria Malfoy. Now her reanimated corpse was taking slow steps across the emerald green carpet towards her terrified son.

Albus's father had told him many times that the best defence against an Inferius was fire, but he'd never paid particular attention to his father's advice, and even if he had he didn't think that in that particular moment he would have been able to recall anything useful. For lack of a more effective course of action he stood up and ran across the room, throwing himself on top of Scorpius and causing them both to fall to the ground.

"Sorpius, run," he begged, more than willing to sacrifice himself for his friend. "Go!"

He tried to push Scorpius from under him but his friend didn't budge. His eyes were fixed on the image of his mother that was edging ever closer to the two boys. They were full of terror, and pain, and Albus couldn't bear it.

He rolled over, still making sure his body entirely covered that of Scorpius, and pointed his wand in the direction of the monster. He had no idea what spell he was going to cast, but he had to do something- or at least he would have had to, had the Inferius still been there.

Where the Inferius had been standing there were now two figures, rather than one. A thin, medium-height boy with floppy brown hair and a slightly taller, slightly skinnier, blonde boy. Both were wearing Slytherin robes, and they were standing toe-to-toe.

Albus recognised himself and Scorpius, but something was off. His doppelganger's face was full of an emotion that the real Albus would never dare display: love.

What the fake Albus did next was even less likely of the real boy.

The doppelganger leaned in slowly towards the fake Scorpius, closing his eyes and pouting softly as he did so.

"No..." Albus gasped, still pointing his wand uselessly at the two carbon copies of himself and Scorpius, and still very, very aware of his best friend's presence behind him.

The fake Albus's lips forced themselves against Scorpius's and the blonde boy immediately pulled back, pushing Albus away from him with aggressive vigour.

"How dare you, Potter?" The vision spat, pulling a face and looking the fake Albus up and down with disgust. The voice that spoke was undeniably that of Scorpius, but the way he spoke was much more fitting of a young Draco Malfoy.

"But I love you Scorpius!" The fake Albus whimpered, pathetically.

"No..." The real Albus whispered again, his own voice beginning to break now, "stop."

"You disgust me," the monstrous apparition of Scorpius spat, "you and your filthy half blood family."

Albus was still holding his wand, but he had been rendered motionless by the pain and embarrassment of what was unfolding in front of him. The nightmare wasn't destined to continue, however. He felt five pale fingers wrap around his wand hand and a warm breath brush against his ear as his much braver, and much more intelligent best friend muttered, "riddikulus."

With a loud clap that sounded like a leather belt being whipped against a piece of wood the fake Albus and Scorpius vanished. They were replaced by a tutu-clad chimpanzee who began to dance salsa. It frolicked and swayed its hips comically from side-to-side, taking a small step backwards with each movement. Finally, with a twirl and a high kick, the chimpanzee re-entered the cupboard it had emerged from and slammed the door shut behind it.

"Colloportus," Scorpius whispered, still directing Albus's hand. The cupboard door locked itself magically with a small click, trapping the boggart inside.


	16. Chapter 16

Albus didn't dare move. He could feel Scorpius behind him, the two boys were still pressed together as tightly as they had been when Albus was trying to protect his friend from the Inferius.

He realised now, though, that rather than protecting the person he loved the most, he had lost him forever. There was no way of explaining to Scorpius that what he had just witnessed was a mistake. There was no excuse that would make him carry on like it had never happened. Albus knew this, and for that reason he was terrified of turning to face his once friend. In fact, Albus imagined that if there were a spell that could freeze time, he would have used it then. 

He could feel Scorpius's heart beating against his back and he could feel the equally ferocious thumping of blood passing through the veins in his fingertips, which were still wrapped around his wand hand. It was the calm before the storm - the final seconds before his world came crashing down.

Albus wanted nothing more than to make that moment last forever. 

His illusion was shattered, almost instantly, by Scorpius. With one hand he swept his blonde fringe back out of his eyes, and with the other, which was still wrapped around Albus's, he tugged on his friend's arm. Albus allowed himself to be guided. He turned around and rose to his knees. He was now facing Scorpius, but he couldn't look him in the eye. Instead, he starred at the small patch of wet, marble floor that lay between them.

"Al?" Scorpius whispered, his voice questioning and full of uncertainty.

Albus didn't answer. He couldn't. The only response his body gave was a sharp sting as his eyes began to fill with hot tears.

"Al? Look at me." Scorpius was still whispering.

Albus shook his head, he tried to speak, but the words came out weak and full of self-pity.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. He'd never felt so pathetically helpless in his life. "I didn't want you to see that. I- I just...- It's not what it looks like."

Scorpius placed his free hand on Albus's chin and lifted his head slightly, just enough for their eyes to make contact. Albus had been expecting to see anger in his friend's face, probably hatred, too, and definitely disgust. But none of those things were present. Instead, all that Albus could see was wonder. 

How typical of Scorpius, Albus thought. 

"That thing," Scorpius began quietly, "was a boggart."

Albus nodded.

"Boggarts show one's greatest fear..." Scorpius continued, stating the obvious, "and your greatest fear is... kissing me?"

Albus shook his head violently as more hot tears began to spring from his eyes. He looked down again, breaking eye contact.

"So what you're scared of is ... kissing me - kissing me, and not being kissed back?" Scorpius finished.

Albus didn't respond. There was nothing to say. 

"Right..." Scorpius sighed, as if Albus's silence had told him all he needed to know.

There was a moment of silence which was broken by the sound of footsteps echoing through the dungeon walls. The Slytherin students were on there way to the common room, they'd be there within minutes.

Albus felt a shift in Scorpius's posture. The weakness that had befallen him upon seeing his mother's corpse had vanished. He knew that the two boys wouldn't be alone for long and that this moment was coming to an end. He took a deep breath and took Albus's chin, once again, between his thumb and forefinger. He lifted his friend's head, further this time, so that they were eye to eye. Albus starred back emotionless. He had given up all hope of Scorpius understanding - not that he had had much hope to begin with. For Albus, everything was over. 

Then it happened.

Scorpius leaned forward slightly, closing his eyes as he did so. He pulled Albus's head towards his own and their noses pressed against one another clumsily as their lips met in a soft, tender kiss. 

Albus's heart began to race as electricity seemed to flow from his lips. Almost instinctively he returned the kiss, placing his hands on Scorpius's arms for support, and pulling him ever-so-slightly towards him. The two boys pressed their lips more firmly together.

The sweetness of the kiss seemed to last an eternity, but in reality it was awkward and over within a second. Neither Albus nor Scorpius cared, though. For them it had been pure perfection.

When he finally pulled away, Scorpius had a look of fear, and mild surprise, on his face, as if he wasn't quite sure what he had just done, but his expression immediately turned into one of joy. His mouth broke into a toothy grin that seemed destined to burst from his face, and his eyes gleamed with tears of happiness.

"See?" He whispered sweetly, "I would never push you away."

Albus felt a rush of very different emotions come at him all at once. There was joy, that much was obvious, but also shyness, shock and a brand new feeling - one he had never experienced before - that felt like tangible adrenaline running through his very veins.

The footsteps of the other Slytherins were louder now, and Albus and Scorpius could hear their voices as they approached the common room.

"Come on," Scorpius said as he got to his feet, "let's fix this and get out of here before they arrive."

He stood against the wall, pulling an in-shoch and doll-like Albus to his side.

"Reparo!" He said, holding out his wand.

The water that had been conjured by the boggart disappeared and the desk that had been upturned by Albus righted itself, all of its contents flying from the floor and into the position in which they had originally lay.

Scorpius nodded towards the staircase and the two boys all but ran towards it, slipping up and out of view in the same instant that the first students entered the common room. Once they were in the dormitory Scorpius was quick to act, he clearly wasn't as effected as Albus by the shock of their impromptu kiss. 

"Take this," he muttered, handing one of his spare cloaks to Albus.

Albus held it in his hands, unsure as to why Scorpius had made such an odd request. There were many things he wanted to discuss with Scorpius, very important things. He wanted to know how it was possible that his friend, apparently, felt the same way as him. He wanted to know how long he had felt that way for. Most of all, he wanted to know how that night's events were going to change their relationship. Albus had always known he wanted more than just friendship with Scorpius, and now that it was in his grasp he wanted to know if there was any possibility of having something more.

Without warning, and with an uncharacteristic urgency, Scorpius aimed his wand at the cloak that was now in Albus's hands and muttered, "engorgio!"

The cloak doubled in size.

"Hang it up somewhere," he instructed.

Albus wasn't sure why Scorpius wanted a huge cloak hung up in the boys' dormitory, but he did as he was told. He stood on the edge of his four poster bed and hung the cloak over one of the posts.

"Great," Scorpius said as he, too, balanced on the edge of the bed.

"Scorp... what are you doing?" Albus managed to ask, utterly bewildered by his friend's strange behaviour. 

"Getting us out of here!" He replied, and with a tap of his wand atop the hood of the cloak, he said, "Disillusio!"

Albus watched in awe as the cloak began to disappear, from top to bottom, as if an invisible liquid were being poured over it. He knew that invisibility spells were all but impossible to perform (His father had told him as much during his many, rather tedious, stories about his invisibility cloak) yet Scorpius seemed to be performing one in front of Albus's eyes.

"It's a disillusionment charm," Scorpius explained, as if reading Albus's mind, "they're normally taught in seventh year, but I've been reading up on them. Actually, ever since what happened with Delphi I've been enhancing my defensive repertoire."

Albus was impressed, if not a little stunned. He knew what disillusionment charms were but he would never be capable of casting one himself, especially not five minutes after having kissed the love of his life for the first time. 

"Now you know it won't make us really invisible," Scorpius began to explain, "but we should be able to get past this lot and up to the Grand Staircase. Then we'll have to stick to the shadows."

Albus wasn't sure where Scorpius wanted to take him, but he was more than willing to let his friend lead the way. The more he looked at the cloak the more obvious it was that it wasn't really invisible, it had merely taken on the appearance of its surroundings. The effect was similar to looking at something through a glass of water.

"Come on, put it on and try and get it over the both of us." Scorpius instructed.

The boys pulled the makeshift invisibility cloak around their heads and shoulders and made sure it covered their entire bodies. The effect was good, in the flickering candlelight of the dormitory their mass was barely noticeable. In the castle's shadowy corridors they would be practically undetectable. 

"Where are we going?" Albus managed to ask, although he was already allowing himself to be led slowly out of the dormitory.

"You'll see." Was all the response he got.

When they reached the staircase that led down to the common room it became apparent that there would be no way of leaving without alerting somebody to their presence. There were people standing and sitting all over the place. There was no way they wouldn't bump into somebody.

"Move over a little," Scorpius whispered under the cloak, "I need to get a good shot at the fireplace."

Albus did as he was told, although he had no idea why. By now he was just following his friend's instructions. When he finally had a direct view of the flickering flames Scorpius held out his wand and cast a spell that Albus hadn't even known existed.

"Flammeo Choris!" He said quietly.

The fire roared immediately, spraying three flaming balls out of the grate and onto the carpet in front of the fireplace. Three first years screamed in fear and the older students ran to their aid - pulling out their wands ready to protect the younger Slytherins.

They were in no peril, however, because as soon as the fireballs landed they began to transform. They grew two arms, a pair of legs and a fiery head each. Without warning they began to dance in formation, leaving their audience both intrigued and slightly petrified.

Scorpius and Albus made the most of the confusion and crept behind the preoccupied students, sneaking along the darkest wall of the room, towards the entrance. They made it out without alerting anybody.

The dungeons were, as always, dark and abandoned. They would face no prefects there. Albus suspected that their main difficulty was going to be accessing the Grand Staircase, which was always well-lit, even during the night. He hoped Scorpius was taking him somewhere on a lower floor, or outside, even.

"Come on," Scorpius repeated as he led Albus up the spiral stairwell towards the Grand Staircase, "we're going to the first floor, keep low on the stairs and we'll blend in."

Albus did as he was told. The staircases were constantly moving and there were prefects monitoring them. If one of them looked down with a beady eye, they would notice their outlines on the stairs. They managed to make it up three of the moving, half-staircases without being spotted, they had been lucky in that sense. The problems started when their final staircase began to turn towards the first floor landing at exactly the same time as another (coming from the second floor) did the same. Stood on it was a seventh year, Gryffindor prefect.

"Shit!" Albus croaked, starring wildly at Scorpius. He hoped his best friend's newfound bravery would somehow get them out of this mess.

"Shh!" Scorpius hushed his friend and stuffed his hand in his pocket. He pulled out a small, golden pocket watch and aimed his wand at it, with a quick wince (that made Albus's heart skip a beat) he muttered "Geminio!"

Nothing much seemed to happen. The watch glowed a little, but the effect soon faded. Was Scorpius losing his nerve?

"Depulso!" Scorpius cast a banishing charm without warning.

The pocket watch glowed blue as it flew into the air and across the Grand Staircase. It's trajectory was broken by a moving stairwell and, rather than smashing against it and falling to the ground in tiny pieces, the watch duplicated itself. 

Now two identical watches were falling towards another stairwell, and when they hit it they both doubled in number. Albus starred in awe as the, now four, watches began to bounce down the stairs, with each bounce they doubled in number yet again. Soon there was a shower of uncountable pocket watches bouncing down the Grand Staircase, multiplying themselves an apparently infinite number of times and causing a noise that one would have to be deaf not to hear.

As Scorpius had hoped the Gryffindor prefect immediately whipped out his wand and ran back up the stairs, allowing him and Albus to slip through the door to the first floor corridor.

"Wow," Albus gasped when they were in the safety of the shadows, "that was bloody fantastic, Scorp!"

"The Geminio curse," his friend explained, "it didn't work as well as I had hoped for, actually, but it seems to have done the trick."

Albus thought the spell had worked perfectly, he didn't want to imagine the results Scorpius had actually been aiming for. 

"Come on, we're here." Scorpius pulled his friend a few steps along the corridor and through a green and brown tapestry. Once again, the boys found themselves inside the Beauxbatons common room.

As soon as they were both through Scorpius pulled of the cloak. He beamed at Albus, who in return starred back at his friend with awe and astonishment on his face.

"I hope you don't mind my using the Gemino curse," Scorpius apologised unnecessarily, "my father always says that most curses aren't dark by nature, only by use and -"

"It's fine." Albus interrupted, still in shock.

"Right..." Scorpius nodded, clearly satisfied with Albus's response, "so I suppose we need to talk, then?"

Albus agreed, but he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to say. He thought he might just cry, or laugh, even. All he really wanted was to hold Scorpius close, maybe even kiss him again. Any of those things would have made him happy. Instead, though, he took a few steps into the room, kicked off his shoes and sat on one of the large sofas. This was going to be a long conversation. The least he could do was make himself comfortable.


	17. Chapter 17

Scorpius's heart was still beating fast. He wasn't quite sure where he had found the nerves, nor the inspiration, to put together a makeshift invisibility cloak and sneak Albus and himself up to the first floor in the late-evening, when the castle was always bustling with prefects and teachers on the look out for out-of-bed students.

He needed to calm himself down and, as his mother had always told him, there was nothing better than a glass of water and deep breaths to bring things into perspective.

He headed over to a large, ornate cabinet that had been sat in the Beauxbatons common room, untouched, for over twenty years. Taking out two of the fine, silver goblets he pointed his wand at them and muttered, "tergeo."

Two decades worth of dust was siphoned off the goblets and flew towards the tip of Scorpius's wand, where it vanished.

"Aguamenti," he added, causing the goblets to magically fill themselves with water.

He walked over to where Albus was sitting.

"Here," he said, handing him one of the goblets, "I think we need it after tonight's shenanigans."

Albus sniffed the clear liquid and grinned.

"I was half expecting something stronger, what with your newfound don for mischief."

Scorpius blushed. He knew what he was supposed to talk about, but he was ever so slightly ashamed of what had happened in the Slytherin common room. It had been a total lack of self-control on his part, and his actions had been entirely dictated by the shock of seeing his mother's crippled corpse limping towards him. In an attempt to prolong the need to talk about what had happened, he took as long as possible to remove his own shoes and sit on the sofa opposite Albus.

"It really is quite marvellous how, regardless of when we come here and how unexpected our arrival may be, the candles are always lit," he starred up at the hundreds of full and un-melting candles that were floating above their heads, lighting up the room. He was, of course, stalling.

"Hmm, yeah, I guess so... but they are powered by magic, so..." Albus wasn't quite sure why Scorpius was all-of-a-sudden so fascinated with the candles, the very same candles that illuminated the entire castle on a daily basis.

"And the windows are quite spectacular," Scorpius added, still avoiding the obvious topic at hand, and being sure not to make eye contact with Albus, should his eyes betray him.

"They're just windows..." Albus replied.

"Yes but you never notice them from the grounds," Scorpius added, looking out into the night sky, "we're one of the very few people that know this room exists, yet it's full of enormous windows. You'd think somebody would've questioned which room the windows belonged to by now."

"Right..."

"And the fireplaces are fascinating. Aren't they fascinating?"

"Scorpius," Albus interrupted impatiently, "I know what you're doing, and it isn't working."

Scorpius feigned his best I-don't-know-what-you-could-possibly-mean face.

"We need to talk about... about what just happened. Upstairs I mean." Albus blushed a little as he remembered the kiss his friend had so firmly planted on his unsuspecting lips.

"Yes. Right." Scorpius agreed, he, too, blushing as he remembered what had happened.

"So, where to begin?" He asked.

Albus took a deep, nervous breath, which was mimicked by Scorpius.

"At the beginning, I suppose."

"Ok," Albus nodded, encouraging himself to make the first move, "the boggart, what is showed... was it real?"

Scorpius was a little taken aback by the question. He had expected Albus to go right in there with a 'so you kissed me' comment.

"Yes... Well, no. The boggart is real, obviously, and what they show is real," he explained, "they show one's worst fear." His face fell as he remembered the horror of seeing his mother's corpse.

"I'm sorry," Albus muttered, feeling a little guilty for bringing it up, "mine was real, too."

The boys remained silent for a moment.

"And... the other thing... the one that came after the boggart, was that real too?" It had taken all his courage to get the words out, and as soon as he said it Albus felt his face blush redder than ever.

"Yes..." Scorpius squeaked, feeling equally as unsure of himself as Albus.

"I thought you liked Rose?"

"I lied." Scorpius tried to chuckle, but it came out as a grimace, "sorry."

"Don't apologise!" Albus answered, a little too quickly. "I mean, I prefer it like this..."

"Like this?"

"I mean, you kissing me... I prefer it like that." Albus was feeling more confident, now, "and, you know, kidnapping me under an illegal invisibility cloak and bringing me to a secret room nobody knows about."

Albus winked and the two boys laughed, finally beginning to feel comfortable in each others' company again.

"I hope you didn't mind," Scorpius said sheepishly.

"No!" Albus half-shouted, "actually, I quite liked it..."

Scorpius began to blush again, but his expression soon turned serious.

"Things don't have to change now, do they?" He asked. He didn't want things to change between him and Albus. He loved his friend for the person he was, as he always had. He was concerned, in that moment, that having kissed Albus and therefore revealed his true feelings, his friend may want to put a label on their relationship, something that worried Scorpius.

"Why would they change?" Albus asked, a look of confusion spreading across his face.

"I don't know... I just don't think we should be, you know, any different to the way we were before."

Albus nodded. He knew where Scorpius was coming from, and he agreed.

"Everything will just be exactly the same," Albus reassured, "but I wouldn't say no to repeating, you know... that thing that happened."

He immediately broke eye contact as he began to blush again.

"Yes, yes," Scorpius added hurriedly, "everything the same as before."

He stood up and pulled on his shoes.

"We really should get back before someone notices we're gone," he said.

"Ok, you're right." Albus was a little disappointed with Scorpius's reaction. He hadn't been expecting to receive another kiss there and then, but his friend didn't have to ignore his comment completely.

"Hopefully we won't bump into any prefects this time, but keep your wand out just in case." Scorpius instructed.

"Right, but I think I'll let you do the magic, since you were so good at it last time," Albus winked at Scorpius under the cloak.

Scorpius smiled back. He hoped he wouldn't have to use any more magic, he didn't like using it for misdemeanour. He thought, however, that this venture had been somewhat of an emergency. An emotional emergency, yes, but an emergency all the same. He therefore thought his use of magic was warranted.

Their journey down the first floor corridor was as uneventful as was to be expected, and when they reached the Grand Staircase they were pleased to see there were no prefects around. Scorpius had suspected his little trick with the Gemino curse may have put them on red alert - but it hadn't.

"Come on," he whispered to Albus as they made their way carefully down the stairs.

It was at least midnight and it wasn't surprising that the prefects had all retired to their dormitories. They were lucky that there were no teachers about either. Scorpius didn't think his Disilusionment charm would fool the likes of Professor Longbottom, who had fought in the war.

They made it all the way down to the dungeons without being spotted. If Scorpius had remembered to put a Silencing charm on their shoes, he would have heard the footsteps of the lone prefect who had been following them since they passed the Entrance Hall. As it was, the sounds of their own footsteps against the castle's floor had made them oblivious to their stalker.

The boys were seconds away from reaching the entrance to the Slytherin common room when a clear voice, which both of them recognised instantly, spoke:

"Finite Incantatem!"

The boys froze as their invisibility cloak turned black and halved in size, trapping them inside it.

"Albus," came Rose's voice from behind them, "we need to talk."

Albus and Scorprius both turned around slowly, sharing a look of concern as they pulled the too-small cloak over their heads.

Rose gave Scorpius a dirty look, before giving Albus an exasperated one,

"We need to talk. Alone, please."

Oh Merlin.


	18. Chapter 18

Rose tapped her foot in a manner far too similar to that of her mother. She glanced back and forth from her cousin to Scorpius, waiting for the latter to disappear.

"He's not going anywhere, Rose," Albus said, standing by his best friend, "if what you've got to say to me is so important, you can say it in front of him."

Rose glared at her cousin. When had he become such a Slytherin?

"It's a family matter," she replied through gritted teeth. Her patience was beginning to wear thin.

"Scorpius is my family."

Rose scoffed audibly and rolled her eyes at Albus's ridiculous claim.

"I don't mind leaving - honestly..." Scorpius mumbled. He was shifting, clearly embarrassed, from one foot to the other. He wanted nothing more than to get as far away from Rose as possible.

"No!" Albus insisted, turning to face his friend, "you're not going anywhere."

"Fifty points from Slytherin, then?" Rose barked, startling the boys, "that won't go down well with your ... lot."

She pulled a face and nodded in the direction of the Slytherin common room as she said it.

"You can't just-" Albus began angrily.

"Actually, I can, "Rose interrupted, "unless..."

She let the word hang in the air and glanced at Scorpius, raising an expectant eyebrow.

He shrugged and looked at Albus apologetically,

"I'll wait for you in the dorm." He resigned.

"Honestly Rose, you're a real cow sometimes," Albus glared at his cousin before turning to face Scorpius, "OK, I'll see you as soon as I get away from this."

Rose didn't take offence to her cousin's choice of words. Truth be told, she had long since become immune to the insults of the Slytherins - all of them.

"You know I'm just gonna tell him everything later anyway, right?" Albus asked as Scorpius skulked away, he wasn't at all happy with being separated from his best friend so soon after the events of that evening.

"That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest - what with your history," Rose remarked whilst pushing open the door to the potions classroom and motioning at Albus to enter.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He asked, falling for his cousins's bait.

"Nothing," she lied, "it just wouldn't be anything new for you, you know, betraying your family and their trust."

The nonchalance with which Rose said her cruel words spiked Albus's anger.

"I didn't ask to be in Slytherin, if that's what you're referring to -"

"Yet your father maintains that the sorting hat lets you choose where it puts you. Strange, that." She said the words with a sarcasm that stung Albus to the core, but he knew better than to let her get to him.

"What do you want, Rose?" Albus asked drily.

She gave him a stern look, clearly disappointed that her insinuation hadn't riled him more.

"James is up to something," she stated bluntly.

Albus was a little taken aback.

"James, as in, my brother?" He asked.

Rose scoffed.

"Yes, Albus, your brother." She starred at him in a way that told him she thought he had forgotten his own brother's name.

"What's it got to do with me what James is up to?"

"If he has been roaming around the school causing trouble under his real invisibility cloak-" she paused for a moment, letting it be known that she was less than impressed with Scorpius's attempt at creating one, "- then that is a problem for me. I have a reputation to uphold, and it just won't do."

She shifted her weight to the left and rested a hand on her hip. She was trying to imitate one of her mother's Ministry stances, but rather than coming across as stern and authoritative, Albus thought she just looked ridiculous.

"James has always been a trouble-maker, he gets it from uncle Geor-"

"There's more." Rose interrupted, cutting Albus off mid-sentence. "He's been - well - odd."

Rose had needed a moment to contemplate her choice of word, and it hadn't gone unnoticed by Albus. He sensed something more was at play.

"What do you mean, odd?" He asked.

"Just odd." Rose gave a small shrug, very unlike her, "he hasn't been himself."

Albus's mind was instantly drawn back to the beginning of the Christmas holidays and the fight he had had with his brother.

It was true that James had been behaving differently since finding out about Teddy's attack on the next door neighbour, but Albus wasn't about to betray his brother's trust. James had kept Albus's deepest secret and the least he could do was repay him that trust.

"He's just a weirdo." Albus said coolly, trying to downplay the situation. It was unconvincing to say the least, and Rose wasn't having none of it.

"Just a weirdo?" She repeated.

"Yup." Albus nodded.

"Right." Rose held Albus's gaze for a moment. She was clearly questioning whether to leave the conversation there or push it. She knew Albus was hiding something. She decided on a compromise.

"I want you to talk to him."

"Me?"

"Yes."

"Why?" Albus hadn't expected Rose to ask such a thing of him. It was common knowledge at Hogwarts that Albus didn't communicate with the rest of his family, at least not at school.

"Because he's your brother," Rose snapped, losing her patience,"and because he won't open up to me - I've tried."

The deflated look of annoyance on Rose's face pleased Albus. It felt nice knowing that he'd been trusted with a piece of family knowledge that Rose had no idea of.

"I want you to talk to him tomorrow, and find out what's going on."

Albus shrugged. He knew he wasn't going to discover anything he didn't already know, but he was bored of the conversation with Rose and wanted to get back to Scorpius as quickly as possible.

"When you know what's going on, you're to tell me," Rose commanded, "and I'll put a stop to it. Understood?"

Albus held in a snort of laughter and nodded.

"Understood."

Rose gave him one last, disapproving glare before turning on her heel and marching out of the room.

She slammed the door behind her for good measure.

"Charming," Albus muttered out loud, before following her out.

He made his way to the Slytherin classroom. His mind had already drifted from his conversation with Rose to the butterflies that had appeared in his stomach. Was he really that excited to see Scorpius again after being apart for less than ten minutes?

He wasn't expecting another kiss, that much he was certain of, but there was a buzz running through his veins at the thought of speaking to Scorpius, one on one, knowing that the love he felt for him was mutual.

"Hey," he greeted Scorpius quietly as he entered the common room. His blonde friend was sat cross legged on the sofa, two steaming cups of cocoa perched on the ornate, oak coffee table that lay in front of him.

"Hello," Scorpius replied in his always formal accent, "I wasn't expecting you to get away so soon. Cocoa?"

Albus accepted the warm mug that Scorpius offered him, he noticed it was topped with whipped cream. He had expected nothing less. He slumped down onto the sofa, noticing that Scorpius had already changed into his pyjamas. He'd been wearing his uniform all day and found that he was quite jealous.

"Don't change," Scorpius said, as if reading Albus's mind, "it's actually rather cold."

Scorpius held his arms out awkwardly, motioning to Albus that his pyjamas weren't adequately protecting him from the below zero temperatures that penetrated the stone of the castle in winter.

"You're cold?" Albus asked. He already knew the answer, but he was feeling valiant, and after seeing Scorpius pull of some pretty advanced magic earlier that night, he thought it was time to repay the favour. He pulled out his wand and said, "parago stratum."

Nothing happened.

He cleared his throat and tried again, "parago stratum!"

Still nothing.

"Parag-"

Scorpius chuckled.

"It's Progigno Coverta," he explained with a smile that warmed Albus's heart, "you're saying the the Greek word in Latin and the Latin word in Greek."

Albus wanted to be annoyed, maybe even angry, but the toothy, helpful smile that stretched across Scorpius's face made it impossible. Instead, he took his friend's advice.

"Progigno coverta!" He flicked his wand in Scorpius's direction and, this time, a thick, woollen blanket protruded from it. Scorpius caught the end in his hands and wrapped it around his shoulders, allowing the other end to fall over his legs and feet.

"Better?" Albus asked with a smile.

"Quite." Scorpius replied.

"Bloody spells. I get that some of them have Greek roots and some Latin, but why did they have to go a bloody-well mix them?"

His question had been rhetoric, and he'd asked it for effect, but Scorpius was quick to answer.

"Well, actually, most modern spells are translated either into Latin or Greek, depending on which incantation works best for the spell in question. But many spells were invented hundreds of years ago, when Latin and Ancient Greek were still in use. Naturally, they had to mix the languages so that a Greek couldn't accidentally transfigure someone into a pig, or a Roman citizen blast a friend through a wall, simply because they uttered a word that also served as an incantation," he stopped to take a breath, "generally speaking Greek incantations work best for transfiguration and Latin for charms, but there are exceptions, of course-"

"Scorp," Albus interrupted, trying not to laugh, "you know I have no idea what you're talking about right?"

"Oh," Scorpius looked like he was about to apologise for explaining things insufficiently, "never mind..."

"No, don't stop", Albus smiled, "I like it when you go all geeky, it's cute."

"Cute?" Scorpius raised an eyebrow. He wasn't sure whether cute was good or bad.

"Yeah," Albus answered, "I like it."

That was all the explanation Scorpius needed, and he continued with is unintelligible description of the linguistic origins of magical incantations.

He went on for over an hour and Albus had no real understanding of what he was saying. He was, however, entranced by Scorpius's way of speaking - the way his lips stretched over his teeth, the way he occasionally ran his fingers through his fringe to keep it out of his eyes (even though it had been cut in such a way that it would never actually infringe his vision) and, above all, the way he didn't take his eyes off Albus the whole time.

Eventually, the two boys grew tired. By the time Scorpius finished his monologue Albus had already tugged half of the blanket he had brandished over his own body.

"... so that's why it's progigno coverta and not parago stratum," Scorpius finished.

He didn't wait for any kind of response, he simply lay his head on Albus's shoulder.

"Thanks," Albus muttered, carelessly, "if you can make me remember all that before our final Transfiguration exam I'll love you forever."

Scorpius lifted his head for a moment, contemplating whether what his heart was telling him to do was a good course of action.

"I already love you," he muttered. He leaned forward and kissed Albus tenderly on the cheek.

"I already love you, too." Albus answered.

Neither of the boys blushed. Saying the words seemed as natural as the sun rising in the morning.

Albus smiled and rested his own head atop Scorpius's. He knew they should have gone up to the dormitory. The sofa was small and uncomfortable, and his blanket wasn't going to keep them warm through the night. He didn't care though, he let his tiredness reign and the sleep fall over him. The two boys slept, holding onto one another, until the following morning.

**Author's Note:**

> So, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed reading it, I really enjoyed writing it and am hoping to publish a chapter at least once every few days. Thanks for reading, and please feel free to leave a comment or a review! I'd love to know how you guys think I could make it better.
> 
> Thanks,   
> Ira <3


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